


Silver Lining

by BourbonBoredom



Category: Logan Lucky (2017)
Genre: Angst, Clyde Logan is a Sweetheart, Eventual Smut, F/M, Fluff, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-05
Updated: 2019-02-17
Packaged: 2019-09-07 15:59:30
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 13
Words: 38,738
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16857019
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BourbonBoredom/pseuds/BourbonBoredom
Summary: A mysterious girl shows up in Boone County one cold winter night. No one knows where she’s from or who she is, and she isn’t talking. Clyde Logan takes pity on the mystery girl, giving her a temporary job at Duck Tape. The girl doesn’t expect to stick around town too long, but the kindness of a local bartender might make her reconsider.Originally posted on Tumblr in May, finally being updated on Ao3 in December!





	1. Chapter 1

_If you’re ever gonna find a silver lining, it’s gotta be a cloudy day_

 

 Clyde Logan watched the car pull into the lot of Duck Tape from the porch window, the out-of-state license plate declaring its outsider status. It was a Friday, meaning all the locals had come to the bar after work to try and warm up on the cold February night.

The younger patrons were starting off their weekend with tequila shots and the coal miners who were getting off the late shift were coming in for their Jack. Both groups drank the cheap beer he always kept on tap. She wasn’t very noticeable as she entered through the front door and passed through the crowded bar. She took a seat at the very end of the counter, away from everyone else.

She had a sweatshirt on, zipped up all the way and with the hood thrown over her head. Her hair was messy and falling over her face. Her eyes avoided meeting anyone’s gaze but it didn’t do much to hide how exhausted she looked. She muttered what she wanted when he worked his way down the bar to ask her. Tequila shot, straight up. She ignored the salt shaker and the lime, downing the shot and setting the glass rim down on the counter.

“Vodka on the rocks” she said, a little hoarse. “Please,”

He pours her glass, eyeing her carefully. She’d taken notice of his left hand at this point, or lack thereof. She stared at it for a moment, but clearly thought better of saying anything. He tried to make polite conversation.

“I don’t think I’ve seen you around before,”

“I’m from out of town, I don’t think you would,” she said, still avoiding eye contact.

Clyde set the glass in front of her and she nodded in thanks, reaching for it with her hoodie sleeves pulled to cover all but her fingers. It was clear she didn’t come in looking for conversation. And he had other patrons to attend to, so he went about his work.

The night passed relatively quickly, the older patrons petering out to go home to their families, the younger crowd eventually heading off to whatever bonfire party was being held in the woods that night. By closing time all that was left were the barflies and the mysterious girl at the end of the bar.

He gave a nod to his regular customers, and they closed out their tabs and said their goodnights. The girl hadn’t moved an inch in hours, still nursing the vodka on the rocks, although it was surely watered down by now.

“I’m closing up for the night miss,” he said, noticing how she swished the drink around in her mouth before swallowing. She nodded, brought the glass up to her lips and downed the dregs, sliding it toward him on the counter.

“Can you point me in the direction of the nearest motel?” She asked, voice less hoarse, but thick with fatigue.

“Travel further down 17, the next exit has a Super 8,”

“Thank you,” she said, removing herself from the stool and throwing a few bills down for her drinks. She headed out the door without another word and got in her car. He watched her pull out of the bar’s parking lot and drive away into the cold night.

———————————

It was a few days later when he had heard word of the girl again. His siblings had come to visit him at the bar that night. They were proud of him owning something, doing something, and the free beer didn’t hurt none. His sister, Mellie, worked at a hair salon in town, which meant she always had the week’s gossip to share. A girl they went to school with was pregnant by a married man, a bonfire that weekend almost caught a trailer on fire down in Washington Heights, and a few tweakers had tried to rob the Grocery Castle. It was basically Boone County as usual. His attention wasn’t truly peaked until his sister’s next topic.

“Apparently, theres been a girl around town asking for under the table work,” She said. “Been secretive about where she’s from and why she needs the work, but its clear she’s from out of town,”

“I think she stopped in here a few nights ago,” Clyde noted. “Did she have a bit of an accent?”

“Yeah, she came in before my shift at the salon and asked for work, and then Loretta from Grocery Castle told me she asked there too. Strange if you ask me,”

“Don’t get too many good people asking those kinds of questions here” His brother, Jimmy, noted.

Clyde heard the door of the bar open but didn’t think to look until he saw his sister’s expression.

“Is that her?” She whispered. He turned around to see her walking up to the bar. Still in the same hoodie, but he could see her face more clearly now.

She still looked tired, but was more put-together. She held herself with more confidence and dared to look him in the eye now. They were a pretty color, if not a little bloodshot.

“I’d like to speak to the owner, please”

“That would be me, what can I help you with?” He says, matching her confident tone. He excused himself from his siblings and walked her to the porch outside.

“I would like to inquire about a job. I’m good with people, I’m a hard worker, and I’m ready for anything,” She said, her gaze unwavering.

“You lookin’ to get paid under the table?” He asked plainly. Her gaze faltered. “Word gets around town fast, miss,”

“I-I would prefer that, yes,”

“It’s a lil suspicious, asking for cash only. We gotta enough trouble here in Boone County and we ain’t lookin’ for more,”

“I’m not here to cause trouble, I’m here to work,” she said firmly, “Just a couple weeks and I’ll be out of your hair. No funny business. No problems,”

He looked at her long and hard. She was trying to stand tall but she was beginning to shiver from the winter air in just her hoodie. Clyde noted that she was wearing the same clothes as the last time he’d seen her. Something was up with her, she was hiding something. But something also told him she needed this.

“You know how to make drinks?” She nodded. “Be here tomorrow, four o’clock,”

It almost didn’t register at first, he guessed she’d been told ‘no’ enough times. Her eyes got big and she smiled.

“Thank you so much I won’t let you down,”

“Now get on home, it’s freezing,”

She nodded and ran back to her car. He heard the car pull out of the lot as went back inside to his siblings.

“Well, what did she want?” Jimmy asked, he had helped himself to another beer in his brother’s absence.

“A job,”

“Did you give her one?” Millie asked.

“I reckon I could use a little help around the bar,” Clyde said simply. His sibling’s silence was all he needed to hear, he knew they didn’t approve.

“Clyde loves his strays,” his sister noted, “Remember when he brought home that dog that followed him home? Begged mama to let him keep it and even made him that collar?”

Jimmy and Mellie shared a laugh while Clyde rolled his eyes.


	2. Chapter 2

The girl showed up at Duck Tape at 3:50pm the next day.

“You’re early,” Clyde commented as she walked through the door.

“Tryin’ to make a good impression,” She gave a tight smile. She looked like she had finally gotten some decent sleep. “Speaking of, I never asked for your name,”

“Clyde Logan,” he stuck his good hand out, she shook it and told him her name.

“Nice to meet you, you ready for your first shift?”

“Yessir,”

She let him tell her what she needed to do in order to get the bar set up. Step one, mopping up the floors. He wouldn’t say it, but that was challenging for him on account of his missing hand. She could do it in half the time he could. Step two, take down all the chairs that were turned up onto the tables and setting them up. She seemed to struggle getting the hang of flipping the chairs over, but did so without complaint. Step three, get the counter prepped. This involved cutting lemon and lime wedges, making sure the kegs were full, and re-stocking any alcohol that was low.

She did her tasks without complaint and caught on quickly to anything she didn’t understand. The citrus was sliced and put into their respective bins, the clean glasses were re-shelved, and she moved around the bar like a machine. She even made a little checklist for herself that she stuck to the register, to make sure she didn’t miss anything.

Any reservation Clyde had about her dissipated within a few hours. Having her around to help cut down set-up drastically, giving them time to go over the actual bar itself.

“Most folks order liquor or beer. We go through whisky and vodka the quickest for the most part, but a few of the ladies who come in look for somethin’ a lil stronger,” he explained.

He noted that she was watching the way he moved behind the bar as she sat on a stool. He was used to customers staring at his hand as he worked, but she was staring at him, and it made him a little nervous.

“This is a Blood Moon,”

“A what?” She choked out.

“Blood Moon. Like when the moon turns red. They call it that because it’s moonshine and cranberry juice.” He grabbed a large mason jar from under the counter, twisting the top off and letting her sniff the contents.

“ _Sweet Jesus_ that is strong,” she crinkled her nose and moved away from the jar. He almost smiled at that.

“Now I know you’re definitely not from here,” he teased. He took a few lime and orange slices and squeezed them in the bottom of a shaker, followed by one part moonshine and some cranberry juice. He shook it up, and poured it into a smaller mason jar, finishing it with sprite. He pushed the finished product over to his new employee.

She took a tentative sip and took a sharp inhale through her nose, clenching her fist.

“That bad?”

“No, it’s good. I’m sorry, I’ve been having dental problems and the citrus just stung a little,”

“We got a lot of dental problems in this here county,”

“It’s not drugs if thats what you’re trying to say,”

“I wasn’t, but now that you’ve brought it up it’s good to know that my customers wont have to look at meth-mouth” she shoots him a look for that.

“I am not here to cause problems and I have never done meth,” she states plainly, pushing the drink back towards him “I lost a tooth pretty recently and it’s just a little sore is all,”

“Aren’t you a little old to be loosing teeth? Or a little young?” She rolls her eyes again.

“It was an accident. It was stupid, and I couldn’t get to the dentist in time to get it put back in,” she pulls at the right side of her mouth to reveal a missing premolar.

“Is that why you were swishin’ that vodka in your mouth the other night?”

“Didn’t think anyone was paying enough attention to me to notice that. Yeah, I mean its basically mouthwash without the mint, right? I figured it would help sterilize it,”

“Thats some hillbilly logic right there, you’ll fit in here just fine” She flashes him a smile at that, missing tooth almost visible.

“I reckon I could,” she mimics his accent and it’s his turn to smile.  

The door opens and the first customer walks through, just a little after quittin’ time.

“Hows it go, Earl,” Clyde greeted the man.

“Just fine, who’s your friend?” he said, seating himself next to the newcomer.

“My new employee,”

“Been a while since you had one a those, she’s prettier than the last ‘un”

“The last ‘un was your cousin’s girl and she didn’t know the difference between a highball and a hairball,” Earl laughed at that.

“Can you make a highball sweetheart?” he asked.

“I sure can, but my name isn’t sweetheart,” she said, telling Earl her name and getting up to make a drink.

“I like her,” he said to Clyde.

“Yeah. Me too,” the bartender said, watching his new employee go about her job.

———————————

The weeknight crowd took to their new bartender like flies to honey. After hearing so much about a new girl coming to town asking for some shady work, many were surprised to find that it was this here girl. She greeted everyone politely and graciously sidestepped any questions about her personal life. Clyde noticed that she had this way of taking those questions and turning them back on the inquirer. People did love to talk about themselves, and she liked listening. By closing time he knew he’d made a good choice in taking her on.

“Maybe you got lucky for once after all,” Earl patted Clyde’s back as he left the bar, officially closing Duck Tape that night.

“What’d he mean by that?” she asked as the door closed behind Earl.

“The Logan family is cursed, we’re a very unlucky folk and he’s just complimentin’ you is all,”

“Unlucky?”

“We’re just unlucky all around. My brother had an accident that ended his football career that would have taken him to the NFL, we’ve had freak accidents, sudden deaths, and lost more money than we could count. And I know you’ve seen my prosthetic—”

“If you don’t want to talk about that you don’t have to,” she cut him off.

He stared at her. Silent. The sound of the jukebox filled the empty space.

“Whatever it is, it’s not something I need to know. You’ve been more than generous with me, not asking me questions about where I’m from or why I’m here, and I’ll return the favor by not asking anything you don’t want to tell me,” she continued.

“I appreciate that,” he said quietly. “The point is, I don’t have much luck but you’re doin’ my business a service by bein’ here,”

She gave a small smile.

“What do you want me to do for closing down?”

He instructed her on the night routine. Cleaning the dirty glasses, wiping down the bar, putting the chairs back up on their tables, and all the other tasks that made opening shift less work. It was past 1:00 AM when they finished. The town was well asleep but it was still much earlier than him working on his own. He went to the register and opened it. He counted out the night’s earnings, it was close to being a third more than a usual weeknight’s. He handed over a fair cut of the bills to her, who’s eyes went wide when she saw the amount.

“You did good work, get home safe,”

“What time do you want me here tomorrow?” she asked as she folded the bills and shoved them in her pocket.

“Same as today,” she nodded and said her goodbyes.

He watched her get into her car as he locked up the bar for the night. She noticed him staring and have a little wave as her engine rumbled and she pulled out of the lot.

He’d found himself enjoying working with another person. It was surely easier to do when they were competent. And friendly. And dare he say, attractive. He’d keep his hopes to himself, but he wished she’d stick around a while.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! You can find me outside AO3 on tumblr under the same username (bourbonboredom)
> 
> I've been in the process of transferring all my work to here, most of these were written much earlier in the year.


	3. Chapter 3

She showed up the next day, and the day after that, and the day after that. Her promise to be out of his hair in a couple weeks had long passed by the time spring came to Boone county, but Clyde didn’t mind one bit.

April marked six weeks of her working at the bar. Six weeks of setting-up and closing-down times being cut in half. Six weeks of that downtime being used to shoot the breeze and learning more about one another. He liked to drink beer when he wasn’t at work, she liked her Jack and Cokes. He had smoked in high school but quit after joining the military, she couldn’t stand the smell of cigarettes. His brother had made him try out for football with him and he got tackled to the ground in the first ten minutes of practice and he swore off sports forever, and she had a different sport for every season in high school. They both liked to read.

It was after the first week that she started to come in to her shifts with different clothes. The zipped-up hoodie was exchanged for flannels with the buttons done all the way up. Clyde thought maybe it was for a religious reason but as the weeks progressed, her sleeves were rolled up and she’d unbutton to a more casual level. She would comment that the weather was warmer here than it was back home.

In the middle of the second week she came to work with a cellphone in hand. It was a simple pre-paid model, but she asked him for his phone number in case she needed to reach him outside work. In the later weeks, they’d taken to texting one another cocktail recipes to try out. The Logan siblings had noticed their brother using his phone more often, and took to teasing him whenever his phone would chime.

His siblings also took to coming ‘round the bar more often. At first to check up on their brother, who had basically hired a girl off the street. They were just making sure she didn’t rob him blind. But as the weeks past they’d warmed up to her. It was around week four when she was joining the Logan circle during her down-time on shifts.

“Don’t spend all that time around them darlin’, their luck’ll rub off an you,” one of the barflies yelled to her one day.

“Everyone’s got their misfortunes, I’ll handle what comes my way like anyone else would,” she said back simply. Jimmy and Mellie gave their brother an approving look after that.

Despite seeing her almost everyday at the bar, Clyde never saw her around town off work. Not that he was looking, of course, but the thought was there in his head. It would seem she worked and didn’t do much else. She never missed a shift, never asked for time off, and was always aiming to please. She’d make the customers smile, and even found ways to make her rather-stoic boss crack a grin.

He wasn’t much for smiling but she found ways. It usually involved mimicking his accent, which was followed by him mimicking hers, which she loved. She’d make a point to remember his favorite songs and put them on the jukebox first thing when she turned it on. She even helped string up some lights to the porch one day before Clyde came in to work, after she heard him say he wanted to do it in passing the week prior.

He was snapped out if his thoughts of her by her voice calling across the bar to a customer.

“Here on a Thursday Lorie? Must have been some kinda week,”

“You know it was,” Lorie Ann, a local in her late-twenties said as she cozied up to the bar. “The ER at Charleston was no joke this week,”

“You want the usual then?”

“Nah, get me one a those Blood Moon things you make for Ashlynn. I need somethin’ strong tonight,”

She made the drink without missing a beat as she carried on conversation with the nurse who was regaling her with the amount of overdoses she’d had to treat that week. Come to think of it, she hadn’t made a mistake at the bar yet. Drink orders were always right, no names were forgotten or glasses broken, Clyde was starting to think she was made for this job.

“We had one from Boone County, he had been holed up in the Super 8 down the road on some kinda binge. His face was all swollen up and the EMTs told us the needle was still hangin’ outta his arm when they got him,” They both grimaced at that.

“Well, you’re off shift now, do yourself a favor and take a good break, that’s hard work you do everyday.” she said, sliding over Lorie Ann’s drink.

“Thanks darlin’. Hey, are you still staying at that Super 8? I don’t know if you should be hangin’ out around there with that kinda activity goin’ on,”

She gave a tight smile, “I haven’t found anywhere besides there yet, but thanks for your concern,”

That weighed heavily on Clyde’s mind for the rest of the evening. He’d never thought to ask if she was still staying in that motel. It would make sense though for that few weeks she thought she’d be there for, but it was well over a month now. Was she planning on moving soon? Moving away?

That thought made his heart sink a bit. It was closing time when he decided to ask what her intentions were.

“You’d said to Lorie Ann that you were lookin’ to move?” he started as he stacked up the chairs. “Are you leavin’ town?”

She didn’t respond for a moment.

“I wouldn’t want to overstay my welcome anymore than I already have. I’d told you a couple of weeks but it’s been well past that. I dont want to take advantage—“

“You’re not,” he said, maybe a little two quickly. His eyes locked with hers and he lost is breath for a moment.

“You’re not. You- you’ve been nothin’ but helpful since y’started. Doin’ everythin’ I ask, and even things I don’t ask for. You did tell me you’d be here for just a couple a weeks but— if you wanted to stay, I’ll keep you on here,”

She kept staring at him, working her bottom lip against her teeth, as if to stop words from tumbling out. His ears felt like they were on fire and he was grateful his hair was covering them.

“I can’t keep stayin’ at the Super 8, it takes up a whole days pay sometimes—“

“I can pay you more. A real salary. And one’a the houses by me and Jimmy just went up for rent. The landlord is a friend, I could probably work down the price a bit,” he hoped he didn’t sound desperate, “If you’d want that,”

She moved towards him so quickly, he didn’t have time to react as she pulled him into a hug.

“You’re too kind to me,”

“It’s nothin’,” he hugged her back awkwardly, hoping she didn’t feel his heart thundering in his chest where her head rested. “Does that mean you’ll stay?” he asked a little quieter.

She let go and looked up at him, smiling so wide that the spot where her tooth was missing could be seen.

“I reckon I could,”

She was getting better at the accent every day, he thought to himself as he gave a small smile.

“We can see it as soon as tomorrow,” he told her.

———————————

Clyde had texted her the directions as soon as he’d gotten home that night. He was in the kitchen with Jimmy when his phone chimed with her response. Clyde reached for his phone, but his brother was faster.

“She’s thankin’ you, with a smiley face?” his voice was full of mischief “Now what’d you do to deserve that?”

“Nothin’ don’t worry about—“ the phone chimed again, still in Jimmy’s hand.

“She wants to know if she needs to bring anything tomorrow?” A grin grew across his face. “You gone an asked her out didn’t ya?”

Clyde wanted to sink into the floor. Jimmy always knew how to push his buttons when it came to women. He knew he wasn’t doing it on purpose, but being the younger, less-popular, less-attractive, less-charismatic, less-everything Logan brother— he was a little sensitive when Jimmy talked to him about the opposite sex.

“If you must know, It’s not a date. I’m helping her find a place to live. She’s been living in the motel off 17 and she wants somewhere a little more permanent,”

“Does she now? Would this have anything to do with the neighbors movin’ out and the place next door freein’ up?”

If Clyde could roll his eyes back into his head any further, they’d get stuck there. Jimmy saw this, and still continued on talking.

“Havin’ her next door could be nice, but remember how easy it was for us to hear the last couple who lived there? Especially during the night? Remember that if you an her decide t—”

“I’d appreciate you not finishin’ that sentence,” Clyde said in the frighteningly even tone he used when his brother would go to far. “An I’d appreciate you givin’ me my phone back,”

Jimmy handed his brother back the phone.

“All I’m sayin’ is its been a while since you had someone in your life, an she’s really somethin’ Clyde. Mellie and I like her. She’s helpin’ you,”

“It’s not gonna be like that an thats the end of it,” he went back to his room, shutting the door behind him.

He sunk onto his bed, feeling disheartened. He had girlfriends in the past. A couple in high school, and one that was with him through basic and his first tour but broke up with him soon after. After the accident, Mellie set him up with one of the girls from the salon but that didn’t last beyond a few dates on account of her treating him like he was fragile. She’d look at his arm too often. He hadn’t been fitted for the prosthetic yet, he had to wait months for his limb to heal before that. Pity oozed out of her mouth no matter what she said.

Since then, he was making his peace with being alone. He sat up on the edge of his bed and unbuckled his prosthetic. He placed it on his dresser and removed the sock from his limb that protected from chafing. He ran his fingers over the scarred flesh, he didn’t care to acknowledge the area too often. He’d try telling himself that he was lucky that more of him wasn’t lost, that he could have died instead. But that was hard to remember when he’d see the look of pity on peoples faces when they saw the plastic in place of his left hand.

It would still feel unreal at times. He had gone though almost 23 years of his life when it happened. He didn’t realize he could take a body part for granted until it was too late. It was four years later and he was still processing it. Talking about it with the Veteran Affairs therapist up in Charleston had been too hard at the time. Most days he could barely get out of bed, much less travel the half hour to the city. And now he was too busy to get up there.

Learning how to do things one-handed was incredibly frustrating, leading to him lash out a lot. He was angrier back then, said hurtful things that he didn’t mean to his siblings who he knew were only trying to help. He made an effort to never yell at them again after he calmed down. It was Jimmy who helped him get a job at Duck Tape. The old owner was a Vet himself, and never treated Clyde like he was any less. He taught him tips and tricks and having someone with shared life experience helped him mellow out and realize things were going to be okay.

The owner retired and moved to Arkansas to be closer to his grandkids about 2 years ago, leaving the bar to Clyde. He didn’t know if he could do it at first, run a bar by himself, but he’d hire people on to help him out. Most didn’t stay long for one reason for another, but Duck Tape still stood and he was proud to be the owner. Mel had once told him that he could do more with one hand than most could do with two, which made him smile when he was doubting himself.

He picked up his phone to see her name still on the screen. He texted her back saying that she didn’t need to bring anything special and put his phone down on the nightstand next to his prosthetic.

He thought about his brothers words as he lay in bed. ‘ _She’s somethin’’_ , he couldn’t deny that. ‘ _She’s helping_ ’, she was doing that too, though he suspected Jimmy meant something else by that.

She never treated him different, which he appreciated. Some of the other employees he had hired would ask intrusive questions, or would act like he couldn’t do anything helpful. They never lasted long at the bar. But she’d done well so far. Made his life a little easier, a little happier. He felt his eyes grow heavy with sleep, and soon fell asleep with her on his mind.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This one’s a bit of a doozy my dudes, apologies in advance for the angst. There are detailed mentions of domestic abuse in this chapter, just as a heads up.

Clyde and the landlord were shooting the breeze outside the house when she arrived. Ten minutes early, as per usual. She parked her car in the short driveway and opened the door. She was wearing a flannel, sleeves rolled up and open, with a plain fitted shirt underneath. She had on blue jeans and the same beat-up sneakers she’d worn since she’d arrived weeks ago.

She smiled as she stepped out of her car, greeting both of them warmly. She turned on the charm with the landlord, doing her usual personal-question-dodge and wound up spending ten minutes just talking to him about his family. He warmed up to her as quick as can be, shooting an approving look at Clyde. After a few more minutes of chit-chat, the landlord motioned for them to follow him into the trailer, opening the door and letting them inside.

It was a single-wide model. One bedroom, one bathroom, a small kitchen and just enough room to fit a couch in the living space. It was pretty broken-in and smelled of stale cigarettes but it was cheap and there was a small garden out front. Clyde wasn’t sure how she felt about it at first, she was quiet as the landlord took them from room to room, but at one point she turned around to face him and he could see the excitement in her eyes.

When the tour came to an end, she asked some general questions about rent and utilities and such, charming her way into doing a cash payment once a month. The landlord wasn’t sure about it at first, it wasn’t very legal after all. She promised to take extra good care of the place, ensuring him that she didn’t do drugs and that she wasn’t planning on throwing any wild parties. She even offered to bring him and his family cookies from time to time. He fell right into it, agreeing to the cash payments and making her promise to bring those cookies over soon.

“When would I be able move in?” she asked, wringing her hands,

“As soon as you hand me first and last month’s rent,” he said. She immediately dashed out of the trailer, leaving Clyde and the landlord to give each other a look.

She dashed back in a few moments later with a roll of bills wrapped with a rubber band in her hand.

“This should be all of it for both months,” she handed the roll to the landlord, who looked slightly shocked.

“Maybe I should start working for you Clyde,”

Clyde just shrugged.

“He does pay well,” she patted her boss’ arm as she spoke to the landlord, “So can I move in today?”

The landlord chuckled and handed her the keys.

“All yours darlin’, I’m a few parts down if you need anythin’,”

She thanked him profusely, shook his and and he left, closing the door behind him. She let out a laugh, jumping in excitement. She took both of Clyde’s hands in hers, smiling wide.

“Thank you. For everything. I’ve never had my own place before. This— this is just amazing,”

His instinct was to flinch back, he didn’t let people touch his prosthetic. But he relaxed to her touch when he looked at her face and saw how her eyes shone with excitement.

“It’s nothin’, I’m glad you like it here. Is there anythin’ I can help you bring in?”

“Such a gentleman, but I don’t have much. Just my bag,” she let go of his hands and let him follow her outside to her car. She opened it and grabbed a large backpack from the back seat.

His heart dropped. Was she living out of this backpack this whole time? What happens to a person to make them leave wherever they are with only a backpack? She caught him looking at her, and he felt his cheeks grow hot. He followed her back into her new home, awkwardly waiting by the door.

“I’ll check out of the Super 8 on the way to work, I just wanna enjoy being here right now,” She threw her bag on the worn-in couch in the living space and started opening all the windows in her trailer. “It reeks of cigarettes in here, I’ll have to scrub this place clean,”

“Jimmy and I are right next door if you need anythin’,” he offered, not knowing if he should leave.

“Actually,” she turned to him, taking a step so that they were nearly chest-to-chest, “Do you mind if I use your kitchen? I haven’t had a real meal in months and I’d like to cook something up. I dont have any utensils yet, and you and Jimmy are more than welcome to have as much as you want’,” her voice slipped into the honey-tone she’d just used on the landlord as she spoke.

“Now that’s temptin’ an all but you don’t gotta turn your charm on me,” he said. She looked at him with her doe eyes, and he realized then he’d never be able to say no to her.

“I don’t know what you mean Clyde,”

“You do it with the customers and I just watched you do it with the landlord, you try to charm people when you wanna switch stuff in your favor,”

She put her hands on her hips and her eyes crinkled as she looked up at him.

“You just got me all figured out, dont you? Alright, I promise I won’t use all that on you anymore. But I’ll ask as a friend: Can I use your kitchen with the promise that I’ll cook whatever you and Jimmy want?”

“As a friend,” he started, making her smile, “You are welcome over any time,”

“Thank you,” it was said softly, in a tone she had never used around him before.

He nodded and closed the trailer door behind him as he left.

———————————

“I haven’t seen this much food in your fridge since before mama passed,” Mellie said, closing the door to the Logan brother’s refrigerator with a cold beer in her hand.

It was past midnight at the Logan house when Mellie made a surprise visit with a case of beer. Clyde had closed the bar early since it was dead that night, and Jimmy didn’t have work the next morning so they decided to indulge with their sister.

“You-know-who’s been comin’ to our place all week to cook, lettin’ us take as much as we want,” Jimmy explained.

She raised her eyebrows at Clyde, who took a long swig of his own beer before talking.

“She’s still settlin’ in to her place, we have all the utensils she needs and we’re gettin’ some nice home cooked meals, I don’t see what the issue could be,”

“Is it any good?” She asked Jimmy.

“No complaints here,” The older brother said.

“Then there’s not problem,” she popped the can open and smiled at Clyde. “People have been askin’ about her in the salon, y’know,”

“Didn’t think there was much to ask about,” Clyde mumbled.

“That’s the problem, no one really knows anything about her. She just up and came in to town one day. No one knows who she is or where she’s from,”

“Does is really matter?”

“I mean, a little? Look, you trust her. And me and Jimmy trust her because you trust her, but don’t you think that she’s kinda sketchy?”

“I do not, because I mind my own business unlike the women who sit in your salon chair,”

Mellie started to speak when a knock was heard at the door, followed by the sound of someone letting themselves in. The subject of conversation poked her head into the room the siblings were in.

“Hi, sorry to burst in, I just realized I left my phone here earlier,” She grabbed her phone off the kitchen counter, not catching the look the siblings shared while they tried to figure out whether she’d heard them or not. “Sorry to bother you, have a good night!”

“You’re not botherin’ us, stay for a beer,” Mellie said suddenly, clearly feeling guilty. The girl stopped walking towards the door and caught Clyde’s eye, raising her eyebrows as if to ask if it was okay. He nodded.

She walked towards the siblings, grabbing a beer from the fridge and sitting down with them.

“So, what’re we talking about?”

“Jus’ family stuff,” Jimmy said, avoiding her gaze.

“Jimmy was talkin’ about the Easter Fair that’ll be happenin’ in Boone in a few weeks, his daughter wants to go,” Mellie said, going back to an older conversation from that night.

“That sounds fun, we used to have one of those up where I was,”

“Oh?” Millie said, giving her middle brother a look. She had never spoken about where she came from before.

“Yeah, we had an Easter Fair, but the weather is a little different from where I’m from. It’s usually pretty rainy this time of year, so its not really as fun as it could be. Kids always get muddy during the egg hunt, parents have learned to let them wear clothes they dont mind getting dirty that day,” she laughed to herself with that one.

“Does it rain a lot where you’re from?” Jimmy asked, trying to get her to keep talking about herself.

“Not too much, its mostly during the spring and maybe a few thunderstorms in the summer. We have other festivals around where I’m from too, one for strawberries, one for garlic, we even started having a cupcake one recently,”

“They have a whole festival just for garlic? That’s gotta smell,” Mellie crinkled her nose.

“I never went to that one personally, but I heard they just had people walking around with whole bundles of it hanging from their hats. They would deep fry the cloves too for people to eat, which sounds gross but is it really a fair if something isn’t deep fried?”

“I reckon it isn’t,” Jimmy said, laughing at the idea.

The siblings seemed to grow more comfortable from there, conversation and beer flowing for a few hours after that. They shared stories about weird town traditions and regional foods. It was past 3am when things started to wind down. Clyde let Mellie crash in his room, insisting on taking the couch. Jimmy went back to his room, giving his brother a not-so-sly wink before shutting the door.

“I should head back, It’s late,”

“They sleep like rocks, especially after drinking, so you dont have to if you don’t wanna,” Clyde said, starting to gather up the empty beer cans to throw away.

“I don’t wanna intrude,” she said, finishing off her fourth beer and throwing it in the bin her boss was holding.

“Y’ain’t,” he said simply.

“I-I heard you guys earlier,” she said quieter. Clyde let a breath out his nose and turned to face her once the cans were cleaned up.

“I’m sorry about them, they got no business askin’—”

“I understand where they’re coming from, it’s not like I do a lot of talking,” she admitted, cheeks slightly pink from the alcohol.

“It’s none of their business what you tell people. If you don’t wanna talk, you dont have to,”

“I know, and you’ve been so understanding and kind and you’ve never pushed me to talk and I’m so grateful for that,”

“It’s just basic kindness,”

“Thats part of the problem Clyde, I haven’t experienced a lot of kindness. This is overwhelming to me. It shouldn’t be but it is,” she put her hands on his, making his breath hitch, but he didn’t pull away. “I—I wanna tell you, I—“

“You’ve been drinkin’ I don’t want you to regret telling me in the mornin’—”

“No, I want this, I’ve been holding this on my own for months and if I’m gonna talk about it, I want it to be with you,”

Her gaze held steady with his. Her eyes were gorgeous this close up. He squeezed back with his flesh hand.

“If thats what you want, I’m listenin’ to you,” he said, keeping his hands in hers. He guided her so they sat on the couch.

She gave a shaky sigh as she began to speak.

“I came here — because I was running away. From my fiancé. We had been together since college and things were great at for such a long time but then we moved in together a couple of years ago after graduation and he— he changed. Or maybe he was always that way and I didn’t want to see it,

“It started out with little things. I’d do something stupid like throw out the newspaper before he finished reading it and he’d get angry and break something. But he’d always apologize and replace it, so I thought it was okay. But it would start to escalate and he eventually stopped taking his anger out on objects and started taking it out on me,” Her voice broke on the last word, lips pressed together like she couldn’t decide whether to keep going to not.

“He’d always apologize after. He’d say it was a mistake, that he didn’t mean it, that it would never happen again. And things would be great for a few months after, but it kept happening and I kept staying with him and believing him like a  _fucking idiot_ ,” her voice became more punctuated as she spoke.

“There was one time I left the apartment after a fight, I had turned off my phone and went to a park and just needed to clear my head. I turned my phone back on after a few hours and saw almost a hundred text messages and dozens of missed calls from him. They’d say he was sorry one minute and the next would be how he cant live without me and he was going to kill himself and that it would be my fault if he did because I didn’t love him like he loved me. And so I went back because how could I let someone kill themselves because of a mistake they made?”

“And it just kept getting worse and worse and then for Valentines Day I messed up the reservation at the restaurant we were gonna go to and—” her hands gripped his, nails digging into plastic and flesh.

“—And I woke up three days later in the hospital with him over me, telling me he was so happy I was okay and that he was so sorry and that I can’t tell anyone it was him who did this because they’ll send him to jail and all this  _fucking bullshit_  about how he loved me.

“And thats when I knew. It took me winding up in the hospital on  _fucking Valentines Day_  to realize that he didn’t love me and that I was gonna die if I stayed with him. That he could threaten suicide all he wanted because thats all it was. A threat. But what he was doing to me wasn’t a threat, it was real,”

She wasn’t looking at Clyde at this point, and he was thankful for that because he was filled with so much disgust and rage that he was having trouble breathing evenly at this point.

“And so a few days later when I knew he had to leave the hospital and go back to work I checked myself out and went back to our apartment and picked up everything important, shoved it in my backpack, got in my car and started driving. I got to the first ATM I could find and withdrew my limit on my credit card so he couldn’t track me though it but I’d still have some money. I turned the location off on my phone then turned off my phone, and drove in whatever direction the highway took me. And after about twelve hours, exhausted and out of painkillers from the hospital, I wound up here.” her hands left his to make a general motion around her.

“I didn’t know if I was gonna even stay here, its nothing like home. It’s rural, out of the way, I didn’t know anyone here. I mean, what was I gonna do in West Virginia?”  She looked at him again, eyes red and slightly puffy but no tears. “And then you gave me a job and I had a reason to be here, and I liked being here. I felt a little more secure, making money, having a place to heal, and I liked working with you,”

Her talking about him softened his rage a little. He reached out to touch her, tucking her hair behind her ear, resting his hand on her shoulder before speaking to her softly.

“You didn’t deserve any of that y’know, that was him and not you. Anything you coulda done wasn’t permission for him to do that to you,”

“It’s taken a lot but I’m starting to realize that. I’ve been reading a lot of stuff online at the library. There’s a lot of domestic violence survivor websites and they’ve helped me a lot. And being around you and Mellie and Jimmy. You’ve shown me nothing but kindness, even as a complete stranger, and I really can’t thank you enough,” A few tears started to fall, and she swiped them away quickly.

“You deserve all the kindness in the world. Don’t let anyone tell you different,” he said, thumb brushing against her wet cheek. The alcohol in his system making him bolder. “An’ if I ever see that man he won’t make it out of this county in one piece, i can promise that,”

“I don’t doubt you, but I hope that doesn’t happen. I just want my life back, I’ve lost enough of myself,” She caught herself on her last words, squeezing his prosthetic hand. “Im so sorry, I didn’t mean it like that. God, that was stupid of me. I’m crying over this and not even thinking about what you’ve been through,”

“Its fine, I know what you mean. What happened with you is a different kind a loss, but its not any less of one. I take it this was the ‘accident’ you were mentionin’ when you lost your tooth?”

“Yeah, it got lost in the mess. And the doctors were more concerned about my cracked ribs and stuff so the window to get the tooth back in got kinda lost,” Clyde inhaled sharply at the though of the kind of force needed to crack someones ribcage. She took notice, elaborating on her injuries.

“It still kinda hurts. I’ve been icing it and breathing deeply and taking ibuprofen, which is what the doctors told me I could do when I was checking out. I just kinda have to wait it out on them,” She lifted her shirt and twisted her body, showing the faint yellow and blue bruises that ran all the way up her side. “It was bright red at first, then bright purple, but its been healing okay, doesn’t hurt as much anymore,”

He realized he’d been having her carry boxes and taking down chairs and lifting all sorts of heavy things as the bar and shame washed over him. What if she had gotten hurt again?

“Luckily, nothing is scar tissue, its all bruises that have faded. I must’ve had on a quarter of an inch of foundation on my face when I first walked into Duck Tape. I took pictures of everything as soon as I got my phone, to document it all, you know, and its a lot better than it was,”

“I had you doin’ heavy liftin’ at the bar, you could’ve asked me to have you just do the light stuff,” he said, still feeling regret.

“Clyde, you go in there every day and manage just fine, I figured I had no excuse to not do the same,”

He watched as she ran her hand over his prosthesis absentmindedly as she spoke, to where plastic meets flesh. She was gentle, but not in a way that she made him out to be fragile. They were featherweight strokes that almost tickled. They were playful. Intimate.

“I was headin’ back from my second tour in Iraq,” He said softly, “We were almost at the airport when a bomb went off near our truck. I woke up a few hours later. Doctor said I was lucky I survived, but then I realized where my left hand was supposed to be there was just a stump, and I didn’t feel so lucky,” She continued to touch him, but looked up at him as she did. There was no pity in her eyes, just empathy.

“They had me go through the physical therapy and gave me the prosthetic once I was back stateside, its been almost four years but sometimes it doesn’t feel real, like I’ll wake up and it’ll be there agin. But this  _is_ real life, and I’m doing my best to accept that,” he looks down to watch her fingers ghost over him. She stops and moves to bring his hand up to her face, kissing the plastic lightly.

“Thank you for telling me that, I’m sorry you went through that, you’re much more than what has happened to you,”

He had heard “I’m sorry” a millions times before. He couldn’t blame people for saying that, what are you supposed to say to someone who’s had their hand blown off? But “you’re much more than what has happened to you”? That struck a place inside him he didn’t know existed.

He wasn’t one for hugs, or any physical contact for that matter, but he had swept her into one before he could stop himself. He’d blame it on the beer later on. She wrapped her arms around him in response, burrowing into his chest. He rested his chin on top of her head, breathing in her smell, playing with her hair.

“We’re quite a combo of trauma aren’t we?” her voice vibrated in his chest as she spoke.

“I suppose so,” He chuckled. They sat like that for a while. She started to lightly trace circles on his back though his shirt, changing up the patten ever so often. They embraced the silence, the only noise coming from the spring peepers outside.

“Clyde?” she said after a while.

“Hm?”

“I’m glad we met,”

He breathed in her scent again, ghosted a kiss on the top of her head.

“Me too,”


	5. Chapter 5

Clyde wasn’t sure when he had fallen asleep, but the sun streaming through the living room woke him up the next morning. She was still there with him. They had somehow managed to fit both of their bodies on the couch, her frame curled along his. She was still asleep, as were his siblings, evident by their doors still being closed. He was grateful for that, he didn’t need any shit from them. He just wanted to stay like this a little bit longer.

He reached for his phone, which told him it was barely 7am. Mel often slept-off drinking well into the afternoon and Jimmy didn’t have work so he figured he’d be undisturbed for at least a few more hours. He put his phone back down and settled back behind her. He kept his hands to himself but loved how her figure hugged his. Both still wearing last night’s clothes, her front was to his back, arms snaked around his waist, with their legs tangled together. It had been a long time since he’d been in any position close to this, and to tell the truth this made him miss it. He drifted off, the heat from her body helping him fall back asleep.

He woke up again a few hours later to her stirring next to him. He could hear her hum a little as she woke up, nudging her head into his back. He didn’t open his eyes, but he felt her freeze around him, followed by a tiny gasp. She then gingerly removed herself from his side and got up, leaving a cold spot in her absence. He heard her shuffle around and then felt a blanket being put on top of him, followed by the trailer door opening and shutting. He got up to see she had left.

His face grew hot as he realized that she was probably horrified at waking up next to her boss after drinking. What if she didn’t remember anything from last night? What if she thought he had taken advantage of her? Hot turned into a chill down his spine. She had gone through all of that abuse with her ex-fiancé and there he was up against her like he hadn’t heard her pour her soul out to him last night.

He should text her, he thought. What would he even say? ‘Hey do you remember the very personal secrets you told me last night after drinking?’, ‘I promise I didn’t even know we fell asleep but we didn’t do anything other than that,’? He couldn’t figure out how to word anything without sounding like a creep. He threw his head back and let out an exasperated sigh.

After typing and retyping for ten minutes he settled on ‘ _I don’t know if you remember but thank you for sharing what you shared with me last night, I’m glad you told me about where you’re from and how you got here. I know it took a lot for you and I wont tell anyone if you don’t want me to._ ’ he hit the send button before he could deliberate any longer.

He started cleaning the living room while waiting for answer, far to anxious to go back to sleep. He tried folding the blanket she had draped over him but didn’t get far with one hand. Then he tried organizing the mail on the coffee table. Mail for two people wasn’t really that time consuming and he was done before he could calm himself. He looked over at his phone to see there was still no message.

He picked up the remote and started flipping through channels aimlessly, settling on some morning talk show. He half-watched it for about fifteen minutes before he heard his phone chime. He grabbed it, opening his phone as fast as he could.

‘ _I do remember what I said last night, thanks for listening to me and thanks for not telling anyone. And I’m sorry for sleeping over, that was inappropriate of me, it wont happen again,_ ’

His mouth tightened at the last part. He knew logically that she was right, it shouldn’t happen again. But there was a part deep inside him that wanted it to happen again. Waking up next to her, having her hold him. As quick as the feeling came up, he buried it again. She didn’t want that.

‘ _It’s okay, I understand, I’ll see you at work,_ ’

He heard his siblings start to stir and put his phone away, last night was to be nothing and today was a new day.

———————————

She showed up to work a little later than usual. She has on a pair of worn-in jeans, a fitted t-shirt that was covered with a flannel, and her sneakers. She looked nervous. She barely met his gaze as she came up to the bar.

“Hey,” she said quietly

“Hey,”

“I just wanna say again that I’m sorry. Sleeping over definitely crossed a line. I know we’re friends and I know I spend a lot of time at your place but you’re still my boss and that wasn’t cool of me, and I’m sorry—”

“We both fell asleep, this wasn’t your fault or my fault, it just happened. I’m sorry if it made you uncomfortable, I can make sure to get you home next time if y’want,”

She bit her lip and nodded her head, whispering a barely audible ‘okay’. She moved to start taking down the chairs from the tables and he stopped her.

“You’re taking it easy until you heal more,” he said firmly. Now that he knew she was hurting, he was gonna go easy on her. “Go get the bar ready, I got this,”

She went over to the bar and the two worked in comfortable silence for a while. Him tidying up the seating area and bringing out the newly cleaned glasses from the back, and her prepping the bar area. The citrus was cut and stored perfectly, everything was properly cleaned, and the bar was fully stocked and ready to go. He was in the storage closet getting napkins to fill the dispensers when he heard a loud crash and a scream.

He ran out to the main room to see nothing. She wasn’t standing behind the bar anymore. Then he heard a groan from behind the counter. He leaned over the bar to see she was on the ground surrounded by broken glass.

“Are you okay?” He asked, hopping over the bar to get to her. His shoes crunched on the ground as they came into contact with glass shards.

She looked out of it, like she hadn’t full processed what had happened.

“I— I was trying to put the glasses away and I lifted up the crate too quickly and my side got this sharp pain and I think I dropped them too fast and—” she finally seemed to notice the glass that was surrounding her and her eyes went wide.

“Oh no, oh no I’m so sorry I didn’t mean for that to happen, I’ll pay for everything, please I’m so sorry—”

“It’s okay! Here let me—” he extended his hand out to help her up and she flinched violently, her whole body trying to get away from him.

Oh.

_Oh._

It all clicked in to place for him.

She did everything perfectly at the bar because she was afraid of what would happen if she didn’t. He remembered what she had told him the night before. How her ex had beat her to a pulp for messing up a  _damn dinner reservation_.

His skin crawled and he pulled his hand back to his side. She looked so scared. He said her name as gently as he could.

“It’s okay, they’re just glasses. Are you hurt? Did you get cut? Here, I wanna help you up,” He extended his hand again, slowly and palm up so she knew he wasn’t going to hit her. She took his hand and hoisted herself up, glass falling off her as she stood.

“I’ll pay for everything I swear, please don’t fire me I’ll fix this, I can fix this,”

“Hey, hey don’t worry about it, it was an accident. They’re just glasses, I’m not mad at you,” His hand stayed holding on to hers as he carefully brushed some glass off her shoulder. “You got glass all over you, its dangerous, I’ll help you get it off, c’mon,”

He led her to the sink in the small kitchen, reassuring her the whole time. He had her remove her flannel, which he took outside to shake off. She washed her hands and splashed some water on her face to calm down. He came back inside and handed her shirt back, she shrugged it back on and avoided his gaze as she spoke.

“I really am sorry, you can take the damage out of my paycheck,”

He breathed a sigh and opened his arms to her.

“C’mere,”

She hesitantly stepped toward him and he enveloped her into a hug, which she returned.

“I’m not takin’ your money, and we’ll manage just fine with a few missin’ glasses. I was worried you hurt yourself,” he rested his chin on the top of her head like he did the night before. “And it’s okay to mess up, nothin’ will happen here if y’do,”

Her fingers grabbed at the fabric of his shirt, hugging him tighter. She took a few slow deep breaths and let go. The two separated but still stood close to one another.

“Thank you, I think I’ve calmed down now. I’ll go clean up the glass,” she started to walk to the supply closet to grab the broom but Clyde caught her hand before she could go too far.

“I’ll take care of it, I think you should head home early, you took quite the fall and you said your side was hurtin’. You’re takin’ the night off,”

“But—”

“As your boss, I’m orderin’ you. I’m not doin’ it because I’m mad or as punishment, it’s to help you. As your friend, I’ll stop by your place after my shift to check on you if you want,”

“Was it my boss or my friend hugging me just now?” her nose crinkled as she smiled, clearly feeling in better spirits now that she knew she wasn’t in danger.

“Excuse me lil’ miss, don’t get wise on me. Now get on home,” he shooed her away with a small smile on his lips. She said her goodbyes and he heard the front door shut behind her.

He retrieved the broom from the closet and swept up the glass. She really only broke the top layer that had been sitting in the crate. Apart from a few cracked ones near the bottom, she really hadn’t caused that much damage. He made a note to reassure her of that later.

He hoped that when she got home she would actually rest and not continue to deep clean her house like she had taken to doing over the last few days. The cigarette smell was disappearing, but it was replaced with a near overwhelmingly-clean scent that could only be achieved by a combination of Clorox, Mr. Clean, and Swiffer.

She’d put on the radio and open all the windows and sing along as she cleaned, which Clyde could hear from his own house. The though made him smile as he bagged up the glass and brought it to the trash. He turned on the jukebox to fill the bar with something other than silence. Something that would remind him of her in her absence.

The shift that night started off normal. It was when Jimmy came in that things started getting out of hand. His brother tells him that he’d been let go from his job and was feeling all sorts of angry. And then an couple of out-of-towners come in and start making fun of his hand and treat him like a sideshow. He would’ve gotten through it with gritted teeth, but then Jimmy had to go and escalate the whole thing. His brother slamming a millionaire’s head into his bar was not how he saw this night going but here they were.

Before he could even think to stop himself, he was throwing a molotov cocktail into a car window, explaining to the out-of-towners that it was retaliation for assaulting his brother. When his brother came out of the bar and walked back to his truck he thought he heard him say something familiar. Something that hadn’t been said to him in years.

“Did you just say ‘cauliflower t’me?” he yelled across his parking lot as his brother drove off into the night. He realized then that he was gonna have a helluva story for her on what’d she had missed.

———————————

He went over to her place the next morning. In all the excitement of the night before, he never made it over to check on her. He didn’t get much sleep that night, and was woken up by the smell of burnt bacon. His older brother had made him breakfast the way he liked, which helped him take the news of him wanting to pull off a robbery. It had been well over ten years since Jimmy had tried to drag him into this sort of trouble, being that the last one ended in Clyde winding up in Juvie.

But the plan did have a lot of sense to it, he’d clearly thought it through. But they would need help to pull it off and so Jimmy called the Monroe County Jail to schedule a visitation with their intended partner in crime. But that was for another day. Right now, he had to go an explain to her why there were scorch marks in the parking lot.

She was drinking coffee and watching morning talk shows when he got there. She opened the door, standing in sleep shorts, a tank top and her hoodie. Her hair was thrown up in a bun he couldn’t think of any better way to be greeted than with that outfit on and her smile.

“Hey, want some coffee? I just made a fresh pot,”

“Yes please,” she motioned for him to sit on the couch while she grabbed a mug from the kitchen.

“Cream and sugar?”

“Yes ma’am,”

“First you call me ‘miss’ now you’re calling me ‘ma’am’,” she teased as she prepared his coffee. “You’re aging me,”

“I don’t know about all that,” he said. She came back from the kitchen, handing him his coffee and sitting on the couch next to him.

“So, what’d I miss at Duck Tape last night? Besides cleaning up broken glass. Sorry again, by the way,”

“Well,” he started, taking a long sip of his coffee. How was he going to explain this one?

“Some guys came around the bar last night. They were from outta town, had something to do with NASCAR. They were a little rude but nothing I haven’t heard before, but Jimmy took it personal and started a bar fight,”

“No! I missed a bar fight? I don’t get any of the fun!”

“Well, the guys really ganged up on Jimmy so I might’ve taken a bottle from the bar and made a molotov cocktail for their car,”

“Clyde Logan,” her mouth made a perfect ‘o’ that slowly formed into a smile she was desperately trying to hide, “Are you telling me you set some guys car on fire for messing with your brother?”

“I might be,” she smacked his arm and gave a short laugh.

“Well anyone who’s got the nerve to be rude to you deserves it, what’d he even say to make Jimmy jump like that?”

“It was about my hand. He was just being ignorant and thought he was being funny. It was nothing I hadn’t heard before,”

Her face fell, and she rubbed his left shoulder gently.

“Some people have no sense, I’m glad your brother did something about it. Do you think you’ll get in trouble?”

“I think he understood that if he said anything about the car, I’d be mentioning how he attacked my brother and that would cause problems for him. Besides once he saw how I could torch his car, I’m sure he got the sense of how much damage I could do even with a prosthetic,”

“Well it sounds like they wont be bothering you again,” she pressed her forehead to his shoulder momentarily, making his heart flutter.

They spent the next hour or so watching talk shows together. She eventually swung her legs onto the couch and curled up closer to him. She leaned her weight onto him and he did the same. It must’ve looked downright domestic, them drinking coffee and watching tv together in the morning light. He liked the thought of that. he allowed himself to indulge if only for a moment. It was a lot easier to think about than what was to come.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Heads up, theres a brief mention of domestic abuse/threats/stalking. Thanks for reading if you've gotten this far, I appreciate y'all!

Clyde and Jimmy had gone to Monroe County Jail to visit Joe Bang later that week. Joe Bang was infamous for blowing up bank vaults, something that had put him in his current living situation. He was essential to Jimmy’s plan, and with a little convincing he agreed to help on the condition that his brothers were involved. Clyde had no particular love for the younger Bang brothers but if Jimmy and Joe needed them, then Clyde would help get them on board.

Joe had said they could find them at the Easter Fair that weekend, which worked out nice seeing that the family was heading there anyway. Jimmy was going to see his daughter and ex-wife and Mellie liked to check out the small car show that was held every year. Clyde didn’t usually attend.

It was Mellie who wound up asking her if she wanted to come along, Clyde couldn’t bring himself to do it, didn’t want her thinking it was a date. She happily accepted and they all drove in Mellie’s car to the fairgrounds on Sunday afternoon.

The brothers had let their sister in on their plan and she agreed to keep her occupied while they found the Bang brothers. They all walked around together at first, checking out the sights and the rides, but when they found the Bang brothers at the Pig Feet Bobbin’ competition Mellie asked her if she wanted to go check out the cars with her.

“If it means I dont have to watch people put pig feet into their mouths then yeah, I’m game,” the two women walked off, leaving the Logan brothers to do their business.

It didn’t take much convincing, the younger Bang brothers weren’t known for being as smart as Joe. In all of ten minutes, they were able to start phase two of their plans. Jimmy had told Clyde all of the steps on the first day, but it still made him nervous that step two was coming up.

“It’ll take around ten days to have sentencing go into affect so to have everything ready on time we should have you in police custody in about a week,” Jimmy said as they walked to meet up with Mellie and the girl.

“I still don’t completely understand why I’m the one going to jail,” Clyde mumbled.

“Because I need to be out here to get the map of the system, you know that. I have all the access codes to the construction site and this’ll be a helluva lot easier to get things set up out here. Look, you know I’d do this if I could, and I wouldn’t ask this of you if I didn’t think it was necessary,” Jimmy put his hand on his brothers shoulder.

“I know you wouldn’t, I just thought my life of crime was over,”

“It will be in just a few months. It’ll be a short sentencing, and we can make it look like an accident so no one will even really blame you,”

“Y’know, I’ve spent the past five years in this town tryna convince folks that I’m not a useless cripple and I dont think me having a car accident and blaming it on my amputation will help me much,”

“You’re right, but I also know is that when we get this money you’ll be able to buy yourself whatever you want, including that high-tech prosthetic I saw you lookin’ at the other day online, or even fix up the bar some,”

“I was just catching up on the science, the one I have is just fine,”

“What I’m sayin’ is this will all be worth it, I promise,”

Clyde walked with his mouth tight-lipped. He knew his brother was right, that if they pulled this off they’d be rich. He was looking at the latest in prosthetic advancement the other day, it helped him feel as though there was some hope that he’d have something closer to his real hand again. But the tech was outrageously expensive, even with veteran services’ help.

They reached the lot where the cars show was going on. Mellie and her were at the far-side of the lot looking at an old Cadillac. She smiled when she saw him, which effectively eased any troublesome thoughts in his head.

“Hey, Mellie’s been teaching me all about cars,”

“Hows that been?” he liked the looks of her getting along with his sister.

“I don’t think my brain is built for it but it’s been interesting. Mellie really knows her stuff,” The Logan sister waved off her compliment.

“This is nothin’, let me teach you how to hotwire a car, then we’ll talk,” the two women laughed at that, making Clyde smile.

“I’m gonna go find Sadie, I’ll meet up with y’all later,” Jimmy said, heading off.

“Oh, I’ll go with you, I gotta ask her about her hair for the next pageant,” Mellie said, moving to catch up with him. She gave a smile to her and a look to Clyde before dashing off.

He wasn’t sure as to why his siblings were so insistent on leaving the two of them alone together, but here they were. They stood awkwardly, looking at the Cadillac that neither of them really knew anything about for a few moments before she spoke up.

“So I’ve seen people put pig feet in their mouths today but do you guys have any actual food here?”

“That we do,” he responded

“How about deep fried oreos? I haven’t had them in ages,”

“As it so happens, we do have those. I can take you to the booth if you’d like,”

She looped her arm around his and looked up at him.

“Well what are we waiting for?”

———————————

The Boone County Easter Fair was small, and it wasn’t very hard to find the food trucks, but that didn’t stop Clyde from taking the longer way to get there.

Having her on his arm felt, well, nice. They walked in sync, chatting about the carnival games and rides as they went. He would see people he knew, and they would see her next to him and he wouldn’t lie and say it wasn’t an ego boost to have a pretty girl on his arm. But what he really enjoyed was how natural it all was. It felt like they had done this a million times and that her casually arm-in-arm with him was the most casual thing in the world.

They got to the food cart and she ordered her fried oreos and waved off any attempt Clyde made to pay for them, reminding him that it was kinda his money anyways since he paid her. They found a picnic table and sat down.

She took one of the fried sweets and bit into it, immediately sucking in air after. Her hand waved toward her mouth as she chewed and swallowed.

“Are you okay?”

“I definitely just burned the roof of my mouth but it was completely worth it,” she laughed, taking another bite. “Here, take as many as you’d like,”

He took one and broke it in half, making sure to cool it down before putting it in his mouth. He wasn’t one for sweets for the most part, but the deep fried batter that coated the cookie softened it and warmed it, making it practically melt in his mouth.

He watched as she worked her way to another oreo, making sure to follow his lead of breaking it open and cooling it off before eating it. She gave an appreciative hum and she chewed.

“I’m thankful this is fair food, because if this was available all the time I’d be in serious trouble,” she stated, finishing off her second one.

“You live in the south now, it probably is available,” he teased.

“Nooo don’t encourage me!” her whine easily turning into a laugh.

“If you intend to stick around, we’re gonna have to catch you up on deep fryin’. They had deep fried butter at the State Fair last I heard,”

“I’m gonna throw up, how do they even  _do that_?”

“I reckon it involves some sort of hillbilly magic,”

“We should figure out how to deep fry moonshine and sell it at Duck Tape,”

“Hot oil and alcohol? What could go wrong?” They both laughed at that.

———————————

Over the next week, Clyde began doing little things to prepare for him going away. He ordered a little extra supplies for the bar so that she wouldn’t have as much to worry about. He made a few extra sets of keys to Duck Tape, one for her and one for his siblings in case a spare was needed. And lastly, he prepared himself mentally.

He knew it was only going to be a few months. It would be a light sentence, that’s why Jimmy and him chose this way. Sure, driving into a gas station wasn’t ideal, but it would get the job done. Being in prison still scared him a little though. Being in juvie was different, he was just a kid then. Hell, even being stationed in the Middle East scared him less than this. He had his unit with him there, a team. In prison it would be just him and Joe, who wasn’t even really a friend. He couldn’t even have the security of his prosthetic. It would just be him, armless and alone, in a jumpsuit for three months.

He didn’t even want to think of what she would think of all this. He had full faith in her running the bar while he was gone, in the last few months she learned the ropes. He made Mellie and Jimmy promise to help her out if she ever needed it. He wished he could talk to her about all this, it didn’t feel right just disappearing one day. That would compromise the plan though, and that wasn’t an option.

He didn’t sleep much, and found himself wishing she was there curled up next to him. On the last night before he planned to get arrested, they had closed the bar early on account of it being dead. He’d gotten into bed and tossed and turned for a few hours before finally giving up the idea of sleep.

He looked at his phone, which said it was 2am. He got up to go sit in the living room, maybe watch some tv. He noticed out of the corner of his eye that the lights were still on in her trailer. Was she still awake? He shot her a quick text but when she didn’t answer he began to worry. He pulled on his prosthetic and a sweatshirt and walked next door to see if she was okay. He couldn’t place it, but something felt wrong.

He heard the tv going and saw that all the light were on as he got to the front door. He knocked lightly, and heard a yelp inside right after. He called out her name.

“It’s just me, is everything alright?”

He could hear her shuffle to the door, unlock it and it swung open to reveal her still in her pajamas, and her eyes bloodshot.

“Hey, what up?” she asked, trying her hardest to seem like she hadn’t been crying.

“I saw your lights were on, I texted you a while ago but you didn’t answer and I wanted to check on you,”

“Thats sweet of you. I’m fine, I’m just— it’s just— It’s stupid, you dont want to hear it,”

“It’s botherin’ you, I wanna hear about it, come on, let’s sit down,” He closed the door behind him and sat them on the couch. “What is it?”

“It’s so stupid—I got curious and turned my old phone back on. I don’t even really know why. But immediately, hundreds of missed calls and texts popped up. All from my ex,” she buried her face in her hands.

“And then I did something even more stupid and listened to some of the voicemails. He was saying he was worried about me and that he was sorry at first but then as I kept listening he started saying that he was getting my medical bills from the hospital. He was  _pissed_ , they charged a lot of money. He was obviously drinking while calling me and was screaming about how he was going to find me and kill me and—” she let out a sob.

He turned on the couch to face her and wrapped his arms around her. She pressed her face into his chest, hands balling up in the fabric of his sweatshirt.

“I just want this to be over with, I just want to be free of him. I dont want to spend the rest of my life looking over my shoulder for him,” her voice was muffled by the fabric. “I can’t believe he has the fucking audacity to blame me for the medical bills. He puts me in the fucking ER and it’s somehow  _my fault_ that it costs thousands of dollars,”

He felt his blood begin to boil at that. He’d seen the damage her ex had caused, that he was blaming her for. He wanted to beat him to a pulp, to make him feel the pain she had felt. He wrapped his arms around her tighter, trying to help her feel safe.

“I’m gonna sell my engagement ring tomorrow. I held on to it in case I needed extra cash and it turns out that was a smart move. I’d tell him to sell the fucking wedding dress I’d bought but he sent me a video of him burning it,” he could tell she was gritting her teeth as she spoke, her hands balling tighter in his sweatshirt.

“Jimmy sold his ring after his divorce at a place up in Charleston, I’ll have him give you the address,” he murmured into her hair. She gave a shaky sigh of relief.

“Thank you,” her voice calmed down again, hands unclenching just a bit, “I dont know where I’d be without you,”

That shot straight to his heart.

“I’m sure you’d be just fine, you’re stronger than you think,”

“I dont feel it right now, I’m terrified. What if he finds me?”

“That ain’t gonna happen,”

“But what if it does?” panic returned to her voice, fresh tears welling in her eyes. “He’s serious about that money, I could tell from his voice. He’s angry,”

“If he ever comes here, he’s not going to leave in one piece. No one’s gonna hurt you anymore,” he lifted her face up, cradling it in his large hand.

“I wanna believe you,” she said softly, her bloodshot gaze meeting his brown eyes.

“Darlin’ I threw a Molotov cocktail at a man’s car for getting in a scuffle with my brother, you dont wanna know what I’d like to do with your ex,” he meant it as a threat but it earned a small laugh out of her. It felt good to make her laugh even when she was in so much pain.

He liked her. A lot.

He finally admitted it to himself as he sat on her couch at 2:30 in the morning with her wrapped in his arms. It was shitty timing. Beyond shitty. He was getting himself intentionally locked up tomorrow, he’d be away for god knows how long. And he’d come back a felon. She closed her eyes and relaxed into his hand as he caressed her face.

“You’re an angel, you know that?” she’d said it so softly he almost missed it. But he’d heard her. He wanted to gather her up in his arms and keep her safe from any harm. He wanted to kiss her. But he knew that wouldn’t be fair to her, especially not now.

“You should get some sleep,” he murmured, moving a lock of hair off her face.

“I tried to after I turned my phone off again, but his voice kept playing in my mind. I made a Jack and Coke to try to calm down but it didn’t help. I know it sounds stupid but I can’t sleep now, I should have never listened to them,” she took his left hand in hers, stroking the plastic softly.

“It’s embarrassing and I know that I said it was inappropriate but the best I’ve slept in months was on your couch that one time. Would you stay with me? Just for tonight?” She must have seen how red his face had gotten because she wriggled out of his embrace, getting off the couch, putting her face in her hands again.

“I’m sorry, that was inappropriate of me, just forget about it. I’ll be fine, it was stupid of me to ask. I’ll see you tomorrow,” she started talking towards her bedroom. He grabbed her hand before she could go any further.

“Do you wanna be on the couch or on your bed?” his face was still red, but he wanted this. He wanted to help her.

“My bed has more room,” her face was growing red too, “if that’s okay,”

“It is,” he said quietly. Her hand tugged his softly, and he got off the couch. He towered over her when he stood. He let go and walked to her front door, sliding the locks into place before walking back over to her.

He walked behind her as she led him to her bedroom. He hadn’t seen it since she first moved in. She had put up curtains by the window, found a nice dresser from Goodwill for her clothes and a nightstand which held a small lamp and some necessities. She got bed sheets, blankets and pillows that fit the decorations in her space. It was small, and pretty minimal, but it was hers. The lights were on but she turned them off when he shut the door behind him, leaving them with only the light of the moon outside.

“I promise to be a gentleman, I won’t try anythin’ out of hand,” he said quietly, keeping a respectful distance from her.

“I know,” she said, matching his tone.

She pulled back the covers and crawled on to the side of the bed she usually slept on. He did the same on the opposite side, pulling his sweatshirt off. He was careful to keep his prosthetic on as he tugged the heavy fabric from his body. He then pulled the covers over the both of them.

It was dark and quiet, and the space between their bodies fell cold. Clyde could hear the spring peepers outside her window, a sound that he found relaxing. Her bed was comfortable and smelled like her.

“Do you usually sleep with your prosthetic on?” her voice permeated the silence in the room. He could barely make out her figure in the moonlight. His eyes adjusted to see she had turned on her side to face him, covers drawn up to her chin.

“Not usually, its not good to have it on all the time,” he admitted.

“You can take it off, if that would help,”

He thought about it for a few moments. He didn’t let anyone outside his family and the occasional doctor see him without his prosthetic on. It made him feel naked, exposed. She had handled him so gracefully and never made any indication that it disgusted her. It was dark, he reasoned with himself. She wouldn’t even be able to really see anything.

He sat up and unbuckled the straps with his right hand, sliding off the plastic and placing it on the dresser by her bed. He rolled off the sock and placed it next to it. His limb felt cold and exposed to the air. He laid back down on his side, facing her.

She suddenly, bridged the gap between them, scooting over so that her head rested on his chest. He laid his limb over her, feeling more comfortable in a bed in longer than he could remember. His eyes began to droop and his breath began to even out. He couldn’t ask for a better way to spend his last night as a free man. Before he drifted off, he could have sworn he felt her kiss the hollow of his throat and mumble something he couldn’t quite catch.


	7. Chapter 7

Clyde woke up the next morning wrapped in blankets, the sun in his eyes, and with her head nuzzled into his neck. It felt perfect. She was still sound asleep, curled against him. He noticed she must have gotten up at one point in the night because she was now wearing his sweatshirt. It was far too big on her frame with the sleeves falling past her hands and the end of it stopping at around her upper-thigh, but he loved the way it looked on her. He closed his eyes and nuzzled his face into her hair, not wanting this to end.

But he knew he had to. It was  _the day_. Today he had to land himself in jail for the sake of a crazy heist his brother had come up with. He had to do it, it was for his family. And the money certainly wouldn’t hurt either.

He looked at her frame next to his, remembering what she had told him just a few hours ago. She needed money. She wanted her freedom from her psycho ex who was demanding she pay him for medical bills that were his fault. She didn’t really need to pay them, in his opinion, she didn’t owe him. But he considered that she saw it more as her just removing anything he could hold over her head. It was unfair, but he could understand it.

He decided there, in her bed with her curled up in his arms, that he was going to use some of the heist money to help pay her medical bills. He could find a way to send it anonymously to her ex, keep him out of her life for good. Maybe even help her get her tooth fixed. She admitted a few weeks back that He didn’t have much he wanted for himself, he wanted to use this money to help her.

She stirred next to him, lazily opening her eyes and looking up into his. She smiled.

“Hey,” her voice was thick with sleep

“Mornin’,” he responded. “Did you get cold during the night?” he played with a string from his sweatshirt. She chuckled as he poked her cheek with it.

“Maybe, do you want it back?”

“Not right now, are you doin’ better?”

“I think so, yeah,” she untangled herself from him, pushing herself into a sitting position. “Thanks for staying over, sorry if its weird,”

“I don’t mind it,”

She moved a lock of his hair out of his face, fingers lingering over his skin just enough to give him goosebumps on his arms.

“You have really nice hair, y’know that?” she mussed it a little as she pulled away.

“Mellie tells me that a lot too, she keeps giving me shampoo samples from work, says they’re good for me,”

“Well, whatever she’s giving you, its working,” She got off her bed, his sweatshirt just falling below her ass. It started to ride up a bit as she opened her bedroom door and walked out into the front room.

It was just a little peak of skin, just enough for him to see how her sleep shorts had ridden up her thighs, hugging her curves tightly.  _Fuck_ , this was not the time to get hard, Clyde. He willed himself to settle down and she turned around in the doorway.

“You comin’? I can make you breakfast if you’d like,”

“In a minute, I gotta put my hand on,” he hoped it wasn’t obvious he was trying to hide his lower body under her blankets. She just nodded and went to the kitchen.

He cursed himself silently, trying to think of things to calm him down. Why was a little bit of skin getting him riled up in the first place? Women came into his bar in bikini tops in the summer if it was hot enough! He tried thinking about the bar, going over the steps to clean it. Mopping the floors, filling napkin dispensers, wiping down the bar, bending her over the bar and taking her right there…

He groaned, this was not the time for this to start happening. He wasn’t even going to be around! He was going to be in a cinderblock cell for christsake!

And there it was, nothing kills the mood faster than the thought of willingly going to jail for a few months. He got out of bed and reattached his prosthetic, feeling sullen. At least he’d have something to think about in jail now.

He went to the kitchen where she was standing by the stove. She had eggs scrambled and put on to two plates and was just starting to put some bacon in the pan. He willed himself to only look at her above the waist.

“Hey, I’m almost done and then we can eat. How do you like your bacon?”

“Are you gonna laugh at me if I say burnt?”

“Only a little,” her nose crinkled as she laughed, “But if that’s what you want, I can do that no problem,”

He got some orange juice out of the fridge and poured it into two glasses before setting them on the living room’s coffee table. She hadn’t bothered to get a kitchen table, said there wasn’t much of a point when it was just her in the house. She came over with the plates of food a few minutes later. She set his in front of him, bacon burnt just how he liked. She had obviously taken hers out of the pan a little bit sooner. She turned on the tv to a morning talk show and they ate while listening to a team of too-chipper women argue over whatever the days gossip was.

The longer he stayed with her, the harder if was going to be for him to leave. He pushed the remainder of his eggs around on his place, barely listening to the talkshow. All he could think about was how in a few hours he was going to be in jail and he couldn’t tell her. He couldn’t prepare her for him saddling her with Duck Tape for months on end. The guilt gnawed at him.

He stood up suddenly, surprising both of them.

“I have to go, Jimmy wanted me to do something for him this morning,” he said quickly. “Thanks for making breakfast,”

“Thanks for staying over, it was— uh—I—” she stumbled over her words, playing with the strings of his sweatshirt. “I appreciate it,”

He stopped rushing to leave and turned to her.

“I’m here for you, I’m glad I could help,”

“Yeah, well—uh— I’ll let you know if I need help again,” she smiled at him, “I’ll give you your sweatshirt back at work, yeah?”

He swallowed.

“Yeah,”

———————————

The trial went by quickly. It was a minor charge, he’d only serve three months in prison. He had gotten to see his siblings as the sentencing, they sat near the back of the court room. Before the trial began Mellie told Clyde to call her when he could, she was worried.

He did just that only a few hours after arriving at Monroe County Correctional Facility. The line rang twice before she picked up.

“Hello?”

“It’s me,”

“Clyde! What happened are you okay? The operator just asked me if I wanted to take a call from an inmate,”

“I’m okay, my foot slipped on the gas and I got into a car accident, I’m serving a short sentence because of some property damages from the building I hit,”

“You hit a  _building_?”

“I’m okay, I swear. I’m sorry I didn’t get to tell you before, I wasn’t allowed much,”

“It’s okay, I’m glad you’re okay. I was so worried about you. Mellie came by to tell me that you were in trouble, but didn’t have a lot of details. People were asking about you at the bar, I wasn’t sure what to tell them,”

“You can tell them whatever, I dont mind. I’m sorry to just be leavin’ you with the bar like this,”

“I’m really not sure what to do to be honest, its strange without you here,”

“You’ll do just fine, I’ve seen you work, you know what you’re doing. And I trust you,”

“I’ll do my best,” She said quietly. “Are you gonna be okay?”

“I’ll be fine, its just three months I’ll be back before you realize,”

“Okay, thats not too bad. Do you need commissary money? Do you want me to visit?”

“No, Mellie and Jimmy can handle the money don’t you worry about that. And—“ he stopped himself.

He wanted to see her. He really did. But then he looked down at his prison uniform and his bare limb. The guards told him he couldn’t have his prosthetic in prison, it was too easily use as a weapon or a place to hide weapons. So he would be going three months without his hand, which was kept in the safety of his room back home. He looked awful. He felt awful. He didn’t want her to see him like this.

“And I dont think I’ll be needin’ any visits any time soon, I’ll be okay. Promise,”

“Okay,” It was hard to tell over the phone but he thought he detected a hint of sadness, “As long as you’re okay,”

“Listen, if you ever need any help, call Jimmy or Mellie. They’ll be around for you,”

“I’ll remember that, thanks,”

“And I dont get many phone calls, but I’ll keep in touch. Y’know, to hear about the bar. And you,” He heard her give a breathy laugh.

“I’ll put this number in my phone so I know to pick up. And regarding the bar, I’ve got some light gossip to start off with…”

———————————

The heist was pulled off about a month later. Jimmy had to move up the date by a week because the construction job that made this all possible was closing up early. They rushed to accommodate the time difference but it worked.

Of course there were a few hiccups. They almost got caught a few times, once by the English man whose car Clyde had torched with a molotov cocktail. But he took care of that real quick. And then the bomb Joe Bang was supposed to have made flew back into his arms, giving him a flashback of his service days. And then there was a problem with his prosthetic.

Mellie had given it back to him for the job, it felt good to have it back. It helped him feel like a person again, if only for the few hours he was out of prison. But then Joe Bang had to go and suck it up in the tube that they were using to suck up the money with. Jimmy said he’d get it back for him but it still felt awful to lose it.

And then to have all the Bang brothers confirm his worst fears. People knew why he joined the army, they understood it was because he was trying to be half as good as his brother. Jimmy had a life, he was going to play football, he had his wife and his daughter and was the town’s pride. Clyde just wanted to feel like he was something too. And he almost felt it. Then he lost his hand. And Jimmy lost the football scholarship. But it was all going to be worth it if they pulled this heist off.

And now he comes to hear from his sister that the money was found at a gas station and had been returned to the race track. Jimmy had screwed them all over. And now he was sitting in jail for nothing.

The family curse had worked its magic once again.

He was angry. He didn’t talk much to people in the first place but he was almost completely silent for the next week. He did his job mopping the floors, ate his meals, and would lay awake at night in silence.

He didn’t want to call her. He had done this heist partially for her. He wanted to get her that money to help her feel the freedom she craved. He was ashamed and couldn’t even tell her why. He pushed it from his mind, it hurt too much to think about. He was disappointing her and she didn’t even know it.

Mellie came to visit him two weeks after the heist. If she noticed he looked disheveled she didn’t comment on it.

“I know you’re upset. Hell, we’re all upset, but what’s done is done. Jimmy isn’t talking to anyone about it and we aren’t gonna figure this out until he talks. Which’ll be who knows when!” She waved her arms, which made the guard shoot her a warning look. She glared back and looked at there brother again.

“Your girl was asking about you by the way. She’s worried about you, you know. You haven’t called her in two weeks. She won’t say she misses you but she does. A lot,”

Clyde let out a half-hearted grunt in response. He really didn’t want to talk about this with his sister. And he didn’t want his sister calling her his “girl”. She wasn’t his. And wouldn’t ever be.

“Did I tell you last time I went to her place she was wearing your sweatshirt? You wanna tell me about that?” She continued, not accepting his grunt as an answer. 

Clyde groaned. He knew Mellie and her were becoming good friends but he didn’t think this would come up.

“It’s nothin’. She was upset one night and I stayed over is all. I let her keep the sweatshirt because I knew I was gonna be in here and I wanted to give her some comfort,”

“Like a beau would, you mean? And what do you mean ‘stayed over’? In her bed?” Clyde’s face was steadily turning a shade of beet red. “Clyde, did you and her—“

“No, Mellie. We did not. Not that it’s your business.”

“But you want to,” She gave him a look. “We all see how you look at her, and we see how she looks at you. You two need to get it together already,”

“You don’t know what you’re talkin’ about. She’s my employee,”

“Who is runnin’ your bar like a champ right now, but the way. She barely even needs help. And don’t tell me I don’t know what I’m talkin’ about. I know you, and I’ve spent a helluva lot of time with her now that you aren’t around to keep her to yourself,” she pointed a long, manicured nail at him. “You’re both crazy for each other. Man up and admit it to her,”

“I don’t know about all that,” he said quieter. “Havin’ a girl like me like that,”

Mellie softened after hearing that. She knows how hard of a time her brother has had.

“Look Clyde, she’s different. She cares for you. It shows in how she cooks for you and how she’s taken to your family, and how she talks about you. Even when you’re not there, she talks as if you hung the moon all by yourself.”

His lips pursed together, it sounded too goo to be true.

“She told me a little about what happened by the way, how she got here. She wouldn’t go into detail but she did tell me about how you’ve been helping her. You’re a good person, I know you don’t like to hear that but you are. And she knows that. She doesn’t judge your past or your disability or even the fact that you’re in a damn prison right now! She liked you for exactly who you are. And she’s walking around her house in your clothes? She’s packaged at your door, you just gotta pick her up,”

He was quiet for a few moments, processing what she had just to him. He felt a glimmer of hope. That things could work out for once,

“Tell her I’ll put her on my visitation list, I wanna see her,” Mellie nodded to her brother, breaking into a huge smile.

“She’s gonna like hearing that,”


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> NSFW Chapter! Thanks for waiting for the good stuff!

She visited him once a week at the Monroe County Jail for the rest of his sentence. His day would get a little brighter when he saw her waiting in the visiting room for him. She’d update him on the bar. How much they were making, an inventory of the alcohol and supplies that she was running low on and other odds and ends. He explained how to get in contact with his usual vendors. She said she finally took her engagement ring to that jewelry store in Charleston where she sold it for a good price. That combined with her saved up wages, she would be able to send the money in a few months time. It made him sad to think how close he was to being able to pay it off for her, but he saw how proud she was of being able to do this completely on her own.

He didn’t have much to talk about concerning prison life, it was pretty monotonous. He started keeping a list of the food he wanted to eat when he got out though. Number one was a real biscuit. The ones they had in prison were questionable at best. Real biscuits with gravy and a side of burnt bacon.

“Sounds like a good freedom meal,” she smiled.

She always stayed until the guard told her time was up. Sometimes she would try to charm her way into staying a little longer. Most of the guards didn’t want to risk their jobs just because a girl was kinda-flirting with them, but one of the new guards obliged her one day. She looked back to Clyde with a satisfied smirk and continued talking on about the bar.

“So as I was saying, I got in touch with the vodka guy and as soon as I mentioned I was calling from Duck Tape, he came over. I got the usual three cases but I’m going to reserve a bottle to make jello shots for the Fourth of July weekend. I know it isn’t something you usually do, but the younger crowd brought it up last weekend and I figured if I made them look cool enough, they’d sell for a pretty penny. Make them red white and blue with the Jell-o and maybe a bit of cream liqueur. No one has really been wanting drinks made with it so I figured it could be a good way to use it up,”

“You sound like you really got things all figured out over there,”

“Well, I had a good teacher,” she made sure the guard wasn’t looking before she touched his hand. Clyde always kept his bad arm held under the table, away from her view. But he kept his good hand on the table, relishing in any kind of contact she could give him.

“I’ve been meanin’ to ask you, since you’ve been handling it on your own so well, if you’d like to maybe co-own the bar with me?”

“Clyde are you sure? Thats a big thing to ask,”

The truth was, he’d been thinking about making her a co-owner the first time Mellie came to visit and told him all about how well she’d been handling the bar on her own. The customers loved her, and she managed the place like a dream. There were no problems, not a thing to worry about. And it would give her a reason to stay permanently. It was selfish of him, he knew it. She could always say no and he’d never bring it up again. But he spent many nights in his rigid cell bed thinking about the two of them owning the bar together.

“You’re the only person I’d ever trust to ask. It doesn’t have to be right away, I know you’re savin’ up for those medical bills, but in the future I mean,” he answered.

“That’s— that’s really something. Thank you,” She squeezed his hand. He missed being able to touch her openly and casually.

“Hey, no touchin’,” the guard called. “I tried bein’ nice but now you’re just breakin’ the rules, you’re outta here,”

“Sorry sir,” she called back. She rolled her eyes as she took her hand away. “I’ll come back this time next week, okay?”

He gave her a small smile and said a quiet goodbye. The guard escorted her out of the visiting area as another escorted him back into the prison. She caught his eye from across the room and held up three fingers.

Three weeks left, she was reminding him.

Three weeks ain’t so bad with her coming to visit.

———————————

Three months to the day, Clyde was released from prison. It was mid-afternoon, when the day was at it’s hottest. He was wearing the clothes he was arrested in back in April, the were heavy and dark and not at all suited for this weather. Mellie was waiting for him outside the prison gate by her car. He had requested about a month back that he’d move in with his sister after he got out. Jimmy wasn’t talking to him and he didn’t care much for what’d he would have to say anyway. They drove back to Boone county, across town from Jimmy’s place to their parent’s old home. They’d left it to Mellie. Jimmy was married and doing well at the time, and Clyde had been oversees so the youngest Logan inherited it when their mother passed. It happened much too quickly. Another Logan curse strike. Clyde didn’t like to bring that one up too much though.

“She’s takin’ care of some stuff at the bar right now, but she said she’d come around to pick you up later. Somethin’ about a surprise,” Mellie said as she opened the front door. He rolled his eyes, he didn’t even have to ask his sister anymore. She just knew he’d want to see her.

She took him into the living room. On the coffee table was his mail from the last few months, a bucket with a few Coors in it, and a “Welcome Back” balloon.

“I moved all your stuff like you asked,” she said as he sat down on the couch. “You sure do like your books,”

He noticed a large case amongst the mail. It was addressed to him, from the VA office. He opened it. He stared at the contents inside the box in disbelief. He reached for the open Coors and downed it quickly.

Inside the box was the state-of-the-art prosthesis he had been looking at all those months ago. It was a metallic silver, with individual fingers. It was called a “Myoelectric” prosthesis. He couldn’t believe his eyes, this thing was prohibitively expensive.

“Mellie, would you know anything about this?” He called to his sister who gave a small smile when she saw what he was looking at.

“I sure don’t, but I’m sure Jimmy does,”

How would Jimmy be able to get his hands on such an expensive piece of technology, he gave all the money back. Unless…

“Is there something y’all aren’t tellin’ me?”

“Keep drinkin’ your beer, I gotta fill you in on some stuff,” she sat down next to her brother on the couch. He was in for quite the story.

———————————

As promised, she showed up around 8pm. His new hand would take some time to set up with the electrolyte pads, and his prosthesis was somewhere only Jimmy knew at the moment, so he had to go without. He was in a much better mood now that Mellie told him his brother did not in fact give all the money back to the race track. He’d have to see Jimmy later and apologize for doubting him, but for right now all he wanted was to hang out with her outside of a visitation room.

“Well look at you,” she called as he approached her car. 

He had changed in to a clean pair of jeans and a button down with the left sleeve pinned up, courtesy of Mellie. He wouldn’t say but it took him a good chunk of time to figure out how to dress. Sleeves? No sleeves? It’s not like she didn’t know he was missing a hand, but he also didn’t want her looking at his scars. The button down looked nice while also covering his limb. 

“Now, you’re the nicest-looking ex-con I’ve ever seen,”

“Hey now, prisons hardened me,” He joked as she pulled him into a hug. He noticed Mellie watching from the window and mouthed for her to mind her own business. She rolled her eyes and closed the curtain.

They got into her car and drove to her place. The windows were rolled down and she had the radio on. They rode in relative silence, exchanging pleasantries and enjoying the evening air. It wasn’t quite dark yet, but the lightning bugs were already starting to come out. A few danced around her yard as they pulled into the driveway.

“Mellie told me you have a surprise for me?” he asked as she opened the front door.

“That I do, now close your eyes and I’ll show you,” he did as he was told and she led him through her house, eventually stopping short. “Okay, you can open ‘em now,”

He saw on her kitchen counter that she had made biscuits from scratch, with a pot of gravy sitting on the stove. He could smell how fresh they were.

“You said this was number one on your list so I figured why not start tonight? I already closed Duck Tape for the night, so you can just relax. And—” she moved to her fridge and pulled out a package. She showed it to him. “I didn’t forget the bacon. I’ll make sure to burn it just how you like,”

He was speechless. She’d remembered all that? And made it just for him? Words couldn’t describe how he felt right now.

“Now you just go relax while I cook this up, then we can eat,” she said as she pulled a skillet from the cabinet. Before she could do anything more, he came up behind her and put his hand on her waist.

“Clyde?” she turned her body around so she was facing him.

He couldn’t stand it any longer. He raised his hand up to rest on her cheek. She stared up at him. Neither of them were really breathing.

He cradled her face in his hand and kissed her softly. Her breath hitched after a moment and he quickly pulled away.

“I—I’m sorry, that was forward of me. It’s just I’ve been in jail this whole time and I wanted to tell you how I felt but it didn’t feel right to do that to you but now I’m out and you’re making me all this food that you remembered i had talked about an—” she cut him off by wrapping her arms around his neck and pressing her lips to his.

She leaned against him, closing the gap between their bodies. Her lips were soft and warm against his. His hands settled on her hips as hers moved to his dark locks. They kissed until they needed to break apart to catch their breath. Her lips were darker from the contact and her face was flushed.

“I’ve been wanting to tell you too— about how I feel. But I thought maybe it’d be inappropriate with you being my boss and all,” she admitted, hands still tangled in his hair.

“You can still accept my co-owner offer,” he said quietly. “I’m not your boss then,”

“Getting you  _and_ part ownership of the bar? I’ll have to think about that one,” she teased, ghosting her lips over his.

He kissed her again, feeling absolutely drunk on the idea that she felt the same way he did. Her hands untangled from his hair and worked their way down his chest to the hem of his shirt. She pushed it up a bit and rested her hands on the bare skin of his stomach. He groaned in to the kiss before breaking it and kissing over her face to her ear.

“Easy darlin’, I don’t wanna get too excited,” he felt himself growing hard. She took his jeans by the belt loops and dragged his hips to hers. The contact made him groan again.

“And what if that’s exactly what I want?” she looked up at him innocently, but he could hear the edge in her voice. It sounded like they had both been thinking about this for a long while.

“Then show me what you want,” he nipped at her ear, earning a breathy laugh from her. She took him by the hand and led him to her room.

It had been three months since he’d woken up in her bed, and not much had changed in the room since. She closed the door behind them and they faced each other once more.

“I gotta warn you darlin’, it’s been a while for me, it might not be great,”

“It’s been a while for me too, we’ll take it slow,” she reassured, bringing him close to her. She wrapped her arms back around his neck and started to pull him into a kiss.

“It’s been a little more than a while, actually, the last time was before my last tour,” he confessed as he held her back. The drunk feeling was starting to wear off and was replaced with dread. What if he wasn’t good enough? What if she got freaked out by his arm?

“That’s over six years,” she did the math, studying his face as she figured out how long it had been. She was gonna back out on him, he could feel it.

“Yeah, well, missing a hand kind of ruins the mood,” his voice sounding thicker than he’d like it to. She unwrapped her hands from around his neck and cradled his face in her hands.

“Clyde, look at me,” she said softly. His big brown eyes met hers. “I like you. A lot. All of you. I never knew you before you served. I never knew you before your amputation. I’ve known you only as you are now, and that’s who I developed a huge, dumb crush on. I want you for you,”

That drunk feeling was back. He reached up to touch the hand that was holding his face.

“How did I get so lucky as to meet you?”

“Maybe you aren’t as unlucky as you think Clyde Logan,” she kissed his nose. “Now, do you want to keep going?”

He kissed her deeply, hand working their way up her shirt, pressing against the soft flesh of her stomach and working its way to her sides. He pressed himself against her, grinding into her.

“I think you know the answer to that darlin’,” she smirked at him, returning the kiss.

She tugged at the hem of his shirt, letting him know she wanted it off. He broke the kiss as she unbuttoned the fabric, leaving his chest bare. He pulled her shirt off as well. He kissed down her neck as she unbuttoned his jeans. He tried to take care of hers one-handed but she noticed he was struggling and helped him along. He pushed down her jeans and she stepped out of them.

He left her neck and moved her breasts, reaching around to unhook her bra.  _That_ he could manage with one hand. He pulled the straps down her arms and threw it in the growing pile of their clothing. He kneaded at her breasts, kissing the skin he wasn’t covering with his hand. They felt so perfect under his touch. She moaned as he took her right nipple in his mouth.

“Clyde, you’re making it very hard to concentrate right now,” her hands were fumbling with his zipper, she was turning into putty in his mouth.

“Then lie back sweetheart, let me take care of you,” he gave her a small push onto the bed.

She worked her way up the bed, making room for him. She settled near her pillows with her back against the mattress. He kneeled between her legs, kissing her lips gently before leaving a trail of kisses down her body. He stopped right above the hem of her panties, noticing the small wet patch growing between her legs. He kissed her through the fabric, making her moan his name.  _God_ , he loved the way his name sounded from her mouth.

He pulled the fabric down past her thighs, then her legs, before throwing it across the room. She was now completely naked before him. He sat back, taking it all in.

“You’re gorgeous,” he breathed. He kissed below her belly button, then her mound, then her clit.

She squirmed with the last kiss, letting out a whine. He could see how wet she was with her legs spread, he wanted nothing more than to taste her. He licked a wide stripe over her core, causing her to tangle her fingers in his hair. He wrapped his arms around her thighs, dragging her closer, placing open-mouth kisses over her pussy. He could spend forever between her thighs. He fucked her with his tongue, nose brushing over her clit. She made the most delicious noises he’d ever heard.

He unhooked his right hand, bringing it to his mouth. He coated his first two fingers before bringing them to her entrance. He pushed inside her slowly, listening to her moan as he did. He brought his mouth to her clit and he pumped his fingers in and out of her. He scissored them inside her, making her arch off the mattress. He used his weight to push her back down as he made a beckoning motion inside her that brushed against a spot she hadn’t felt in a long time.

“Fuck! Clyde!” her hands tugged at his scalp, causing him to moan into her pussy. He didn’t let up, throwing her left leg over his shoulder as he continued to fuck her with his fingers.

He added a third finger, which caused her to clench around him.  _Christ_ , he wanted to make her do that around his cock. He rocked his hips into the bed as he imagined how that would feel. He drew tight circles around her clit with his tongue and guided his fingers over that one spot again and again until she was barely holding on.

“Clyde, I-I’m gonna—oh  _fuck_! I’m gonna cum,” he saw her eyes screw shut and her back begin to arch off the bed again, He continued his assault on her clit.

“That’s right babygirl, cum for me,” he moaned and bucked his hips into the mattress, growing impossibly hard at the sight of her coming undone in front of him. The vibrations of his moans went straight to her core, causing her to cry out. One hand left his hair to grab at the sheets under her, legs shaking as her walls spasmed around his fingers. She screamed his name as she came.

He coaxed her through her orgasm, giving her kitten licks on her clit and moving his fingers inside her slowly until she pulled at his hair for him to stop. Her chest rose and fell with heavy breaths, her pupils were blown wide and her cheeks were pink. He took his fingers into his mouth, licking her cum off them.

“You taste so sweet darlin’,” he licked his lips and wiped his face. She motioned for him to come closer to her. When he leaned down, she kissed him, tasting herself on his lips.  

“Pants. Off. Now,” she said in between kisses, reaching down to tug his jeans off. He helped her strip them off his body, quickly followed by his button down, leaving him in just his boxers. He much much too worked up to care about her seeing his arm now. She ran her fingers along the hem as she sat up. She stroked the fabric where his erection had tented, causing him to stifle a moan.

She worked the fabric down past his hips, his cock springing free as she did so. He was painfully hard, his head already leaking precum. She looked up as Clyde as she took his shaft in her hand and licked the bead off. He let out a moan as she pulled him further into her mouth.

“Fuuuck sweetheart, I’m not gonna last if you keep that up,” his hand flew to her hair and she worked herself up and down his length, running her tongue along the shaft. She pulled off him with one last swirl around his head.

“I have a condom, give me a second,” she leaned over to her nightstand, opening the drawer. She fished out the little plastic package and handed it to him. “How do you want me?”

He unwrapped the condom, rolling it down his length.

“Just like this, lie down for me sweetheart,” she laid back down on the bed, legs spread open around him.

He put his body over hers, lining the two of them up. He put his left hand up by her head to steady himself and he used his right hand to guide his cock to her entrance. He teased her with the head a few times, using her wetness to glide himself over her clit. She moaned and gave him a playful slap on the arm.

“Clyde, please don’t tease me, I’ve been waiting for this,”

“Have you now? How long?” his cock twitched at the thought of her imagining them together.

“Since you slept over,” she admitted, not wanting to look him in the eye. He smiled and kissed her.

“I’m gonna give you what you’ve been waitin’ for darlin’,” he rested his forehead against hers as he pushed his cock in to her.

They both moaned at the sensation. Inch by inch he seated himself a little deeper in her.

“Fuck you’re so tight. Feelin’ like heaven,” he groaned, willing himself to not cum right then and there. When he was fully inside her, he stayed still, waiting for her sign to start moving.

She grabbed his arms and pushed her hips forward. He thrust into her slowly at first, relishing the feeling of her pussy squeezing him. He looked at her, lips parted into a perfect ‘o’, eyes squeezed shut, she was perfect. He moved a little faster, thrusting a little deeper. Her grip on his arms tightened as she moaned.

“God, you feel good,” she bit her lower lip, nails sinking in to his skin. One hand left his arm and traveled down her body to her clit. She began to rub it in time with his thrusts, making her arch her back off the bed.

“You like that sweetheart?” he asked, voice rough from exertion. She nodded frantically, not able to find the words.

She looked so small under him, legs wrapped around his lower back, lifting her hips to meet his thrusts. His left arm began to hurt. There was too much pressure on his limb, causing it to start to feel funny. He stopped thrusting so he could adjust.

“Is everything okay?” she asked.

“Yeah, my arm is just hurtin’ in this position,” he sat up, still inside her.

“Do you want me on top instead?” She ran her hands up and down his chest as she waited for his answer.

  
“I’d love that,” He pulled out and she guided him to lie down where she had been.

His back pressed into the mattress and she straddled him. She took his cock in her hand, lining him up with her entrance and sunk down on him. They both moaned as her pussy swallowed him easily. His hand went to her hip to guide her up and down his cock.

“You look beautiful like this,” he looked up at her as she grinned down on him, hips swiveling. He groaned, bucking in to her.

She braced her hands on his shoulders and leaned forward as he thrust his hips into her. The force was making her breasts bounce in his face and he placed sloppy kisses where he could. Everything was becoming too much for him, he hadn’t felt this good in such a long time. He could feel the knot tighten in his stomach.

“Sweetheart, I dont think I’m gonna last much longer,” Every muscle in his body tensed as he pounded into her.

“I’m close too,” She said, her walls beginning to flutter around him. He brought his hand to her clit, rubbing it quickly. “Fuck! Don’t stop, please, Clyde!” she buried her face in his neck.

She came again, walls gripping his cock like a vice. The sensation pushed him over the edge, thrusts becoming uneven. He came with a grunt, spilling inside her, still playing with her clit. He gave a few more shallow thrusts before finally stopping. The two laid together catching their breath in a sweaty pile.

He opened his eyes to see her eyes looking into his, smiling wide enough to show her missing tooth.

“Six years huh? Coulda fooled me,” she teased. He laughed and planted a kiss on her forehead, then her nose, then her lips.

He felt himself beginning to grow soft inside her. He wiggled his hips to let her know it was time to get off. She pulled off and cuddled up under the blankets. He got up to pull the condom off, throwing it in the trash. He looked over his shoulder to see her staring at him.

“Are you checking me out?” He asked playfully.

“Can you blame me?” She responded. He couldn’t remember the last time someone looked at him so lovingly. She patted the pillow next to her. “Come back, i’m getting cold,”

He got back in to bed, getting under the covers next to her. She curled up next to him, resting her head on his chest. Bare skin touching bare skin. She was listening to his heart beat, he was running his fingers through her hair. It was bliss.

“I don’t know if you got this from what we just did but I really like you,” She said quietly. He grinned to himself, planting a lazy kiss on the top of her head, wrapping his limb around her shoulder to bring her closer. She didn’t flinch.

“I really like you too darlin’,” He said. He knew it was an understatement, but he’d start off slow.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another NSFW Chapter!

He woke up the next morning to the feeling of her kissing his cheek. He opened his eyes, slowly adjusting to the sunlight streaming through her window. She was laying next to him on her side, arm propping up her head as she studied him.

“G’mornin’,” she whispered.

“Mornin’ darlin’,” he mumbled, throwing his arm over her to pull her closer to him. She laughed into his chest.

Memories of last night came flooding back to him. Of him kissing her, of her kissing back, of that kissing leading to other things. It all felt like a dream. She maneuvered her face from his chest to his neck where she kissed a sweet spot, making him groan.

“I left some marks here it looks like, sorry about that,” she kissed the bruises she had made the night before.

“It’s alright I don’t mind it,” he tilted her chin up so he could kiss her lips again. It was chaste and sweet. “And I don’t mind wakin’ up like this either,”

“Me neither, I guess we’ll have to keep it up,” she touched her nose to his, letting her hands trail over his chest, slowly dipping lower to run her fingers along the trail of hair below his navel.

“Mmmm what’re you doin’?” the kisses became more passionate and their hands began to wander more.

“Mmmmm nothin’,” she said in her most innocent voice. She pushed him so he was on his back and straddled him, bringing back more memories of last night. He felt himself growing hard again.

He rested his limb on her hip as his hand went to play with her breasts, continuing kissing all the while. Her hand slowly settled around the base of his cock and she began to lazily stroke him, making him grow harder by the second.

“God, you’re perfect,” he moaned, bringing his hand to her cunt. He could feel she was already wet. He was making this perfect woman wet. She wanted him. And nothing felt better than that.

He brushed his dampened fingers over her clit, making her tighten her grip on his cock. He did it over and over, relishing the feeling of her pacing her strokes in time with his. He pressed his thumb to her clit as he worked two fingers inside of her, making her buck her hips. She broke off their kiss and buried her head into the side of his neck, effectively burying any moans coming out of her mouth.

He felt himself getting closer and closer. The sound of her moans, the feeling of her warmth, the smell of her hair, all helping to tighten the knot that was forming in his stomach. He was so concentrated he wouldn’t have heard the knocking if it weren’t for her. She instantly perked up, hands flying to his to get him to stop.There was another knock at the door. Her eyes met his, wide with confusion.

“Who could be knockin’ this early in the morning?” she muttered, getting off of him and quickly pulling a pair of pajama pants and his sweatshirt out of her dresser drawer. He smiled to himself when he saw that.

She pulled on her clothes and went to her front door to see who was there. She opened it, and leaned back so she could see Clyde.

“It’s you sister!” she called, opening the door wider to let her inside.

Clyde didn’t think he could pull on jeans so quickly with one hand.

His shirt was about half-way on when Mellie noticed him from across the room, a small twinkle in her eye.

“Need a little help there?” she called. Clyde’s face was nearly scarlet, and hers wasn’t too far behind. Mellie, on the other hand, looked delighted.

“I’m fine, thanks,” he tugged his limb through the arm hole, getting up to join the girls in the living room. He was met with her trying desperately to avoid any eye contact, and Mellie raising her eyebrows at him.

“I texted you a few times last night, askin’ when you’d be home, I see now you were a little too preoccupied to check your phone,” Clyde gave his sister his best ‘don’t-test-me’ look, but she was immune.

“‘l’ll make everyone coffee and heat up breakfast,” she mumbled as she disappeared into the kitchen. Thankfully, they’d remembered the food that was left out after they’d settled down last night. They’d certainly worked up the appetite to eat afterwords, but most of it wound up packed in the fridge.

Mellie turned to her brother, stepping closer so she could speak in a hushed tone.

“So you finally told her? I mean, I guess you did if you didn’t come home last night,”

He tried to continue his ‘don’t-test-me’ look but her smile made it difficult.

“I’m happy for you, you deserve this,” she held out her hand for a fist-bump, which he returned.

“I appreciate that, but did you come all this way just to mess with my personal life?”

“No, I’ll have you know I visited her all the time when you weren’t here, we’re actually friends now. But thats beside the point, I was at Jimmy’s next door before I came here. Wait, does she know anything about our recent  _family outing_?”

“I just told her I liked her, I’m not gonna go scarin’ her off,” he said slightly incredulous.

“Alright, alright, just makin’ sure. I mean, you just found out about the money, Jimmy wouldn’t let me tell you in prison, so I dont think Jimmy would be too happy if she suddenly knew everything,”

“I’m not tellin’ her anything,” he kept his voice low as she came back out of the kitchen with coffee mugs.

“Breakfast is almost ready, you’re more than welcome to stay Mel,”

“How kind of you, are those biscuits and gravy I smell? I think I just might then,” she waggled her eyebrows at her brother, who just rolled his eyes and followed her into the kitchen.

———————————

It was mid-November when Jimmy told him it was time to go get the money. He drove in from Virginia and the two of them went to the dump where Earl helped them dig up about a dozen trash bags tied with red bands. Jimmy cut one of them open to show Clyde the bills inside them.

It was more money than Clyde could have imagined. They dropped a bag off at Joe Bang’s and took the rest home to count and divvy up. The three Logan siblings sat in their parent’s old house counting out the hundreds of thousands of dollars they had stolen. To be completely honest, Clyde lost track of the final count. He was so in shock that they had pulled this off. He would never have to think about money again in his life if he planned it right. He’d put a hundred in his wallet and put the rest away for safe keeping.

He tried to act as normal as possible at Duck Tape that night, he wasn’t planning on giving up his day job any time soon. He needed the cover, sure, but he liked working there as well as owning it. And it helped that his co-owner and him were going steady.

She had signed the paperwork a few months back, officially making her his business partner. Their professional and personal relationships stayed separate, but both thrived. He was still technically living with Mellie but spent a good chunk of the week at her place. He had brought up living together at one point but she was adamant about having her own space.

“I felt trapped in the last home I shared, I want a space that is just for me for a little while,” she said firmly upon him asking. He understood and never brought it up again.

She and him closed up the bar around 11pm that night. There was a storm that kept everyone home, giving them plenty of alone time. They went through their nightly cleaning ritual with the jukebox playing in the background.

She leaned over the bar to grab a stray glass, causing Clyde to stop and take in her position. Her jeans hugged the curves of her ass, which was sticking out as she bent forward on to the top of the bar. All he could think of in that moment was keeping her bent over and taking her right there. He came up behind her, pressing his hips into the swell of her ass.

“It’d be a lot easier if you just went ‘round the bar darlin’,” he teased.

She wiggled her ass against him as she straightened out, glass still standing at the far end of the bar. She turned her upper body so she could pull him into a kiss. It started sweet but quickly turned into a passionate mess of tongue and teeth. He felt himself grow hard against her as he groped at her breasts. His new arm responded much like a real one would, making his life easier, especially when undoing the button and zipper of her jeans. He worked his way past her layers, brushing his large fingers against her clit. She braced herself on the counter as she felt her knees buckle. He wrapped his other arm around her waist as he plunged two fingers into her pussy.

“So wet for me already?” he said, nipping at her ear. “I’m beginning to think you were leanin’ across that bar on purpose,”

She couldn’t do anything but moan in response and grind back against his erection.

“Do you want somethin’?” he circled her clit faster. “If you want somethin’ you gotta use your words sweetheart,”

“Clyde, please!”

“Please what?”

“Please, I want you in me!” words tumbled out of her mouth as she felt his fingers hit all the right places. “I wanna feel you in me, I want your cock, please let me have it,”

“Now, you know I can’t say no when you beg so pretty,” he kissed her neck as he pulled his fingers away.

He let go of her to un-do his own jeans and boxers enough to pull his cock out. She tugged her jeans to her mid-thigh and he bent her back over the bar again. He took his cock in his hand and grabbed at her ass with the other.

“You look so good like this darlin’,” he ran the tip up and down her slit, gathering her wetness on himself.

He pushed into her, bare skin connecting with bare skin. His hands gripped her hips as her core enveloped him.

“God, you feel good,” she drawled out, fingers digging into the counter.

He began to thrust, the sound of skin hitting skin filled the empty bar. She felt so tight in this position, he couldn’t get enough of it. He reached his hand around to play with her clit as he pounded into her. She made the prettiest noises when he did that. He was completely caught in this moment. His girlfriend leaning over the counter of the bar, _their bar_ , taking his cock as he pounded into her. He felt himself getting closer, his grip on her hips tightening.

“I’m close,” she warned, knees starting to buckle again.

He started moving faster around her clit, fingers slick with their precum. He applied the amount of pressure he knew she loved, making her pulse around him. Her moans grew more high pitched and frantic, her hips bucking up into his fingers. She was caught between the sensation of him pounding her into the bar and his fingers dancing over that bundle of nerves between her legs. He leaned over to press his face into her neck, whispering words of encouragement in her ear.

“Cum for me sweetheart, I wanna feel you cum on my cock,” He nipped at her earlobe, fingers practically grinding on her clit.

Suddenly her body spasmed. She came hard around him, crying out his name. Her cunt pulsed around him, milking him towards his own orgasm. He stroked her through her climax, waiting for her to come down from her high before he worried about his own.

“I’m close darlin’, how do you want me?” They had forgotten about condoms in the heat of the moment. She had the implant in her arm, but even with birth control they took precautions. He didn’t mind, seeing as she always took good care of him.

“Lemme up,” she gently pushed him off of her, allowing her to move him toward the bar and get on her knees in front of him.

She placed her hands on his big thighs, smiling up at him before going to work. She ran her tongue along his cock, tasting herself on it. He groaned, stroking her hair out of her face. She took him in to her mouth, pushing down until he hit the back of her throat. Her nose met the base of his cock and she looked up at him.

“Fuuuuck, you look good like that,” he hissed, willing himself to last a little longer.

She started bobbing her head up and down his length, a hand coming up to graze over his balls.  He felt the knot in his stomach tighten rapidly.

“Shit.  _Christ_  sweetheart, I’m— I’m gonna—,” he babbled, feeling his entire body seize, hand gripping her hair, toes curling, head snapping back. She took him back as far as she could, letting him fill her throat as he coated it with him cum.

She pulled her mouth off him, holding the shaft in her hand as she licked his head of any remaining cum until he began to wince from overstimulation.

“That’s enough darlin’,” he helped her to her feet, tugging her jeans back up her legs.

“What got into you? Taking me right over the bar outta nowhere. What if someone saw us, huh?” she teased, buttoning her pants back up and helping with his.

“Just in a good mood is all. Got this whole business that’s been thrivin’, I’m not in prison, and I got this beautiful girl in my life,” He pulled her into a bear hug, making her squeal.

“Well I’m happy that you’re in a good mood,” she brought him into a quick kiss. “I hope it stays that way for a long while,”


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter took me a lot longer than usual to write because its a very difficult topic to address but it felt necessary to the storyline so I kept it in (I was going to remove it initially). 
> 
> Warnings for this chapter: domestic violence, guns, blood

It was Jimmy who originally brought up the idea of splitting the money up. Not just between them, but between different locations. Having a duffle bag full of bills shoved in the back of your sister’s closet was probably not the thing to do after pulling off a heist. Jimmy had taken his money to his new home and divided it up in a few places he refused to mention, slowly depositing a little with his paycheck every week. Mellie kept most of it close to home, but found some hiding places around the house to keep it. Clyde was slowly bringing wads of cash to Duck Tape that were destined to be worked into the books. He would stash a few bill stacks in his coat, making sure to keep them hidden from his girlfriend. He would hide his money in the storage room in a place only he could reach. She still didn’t know a thing about the heist, which was for the best.

He was driving to her place to pick her up for work that night. It was just easier for them to have the same ride, especially seeing that he wound up at her place most nights anyway. He had finally gotten his license back, which went well considering he had driven in to a convenience store just 7 months ago. But having an arm that he could control helped his case, so here he was back behind the wheel.

He turned down her street, his old street, and noticed there was an extra car in her driveway. Which was strange, considering she didn’t have people over very often. He parked on the road and got out to go to her front door.

He noticed the license plates of the mystery car as he passed it, they were from the same state her car’s plates were from. Maybe she had reconnected with family? An old friend? She had seemed a little homesick recently. He was about to knock of the door when he heard voices inside her house. He noticed she had her windows open, making it easier for him to hear.

_“You have to come back, I miss you, I know you miss me,”_  a male voice pleaded

_“I don’t miss you. I’m happy here, I’m not coming back,”_

Clyde’s heart skipped a beat. His breath hitched at the sound of the mysterious male voice. 

_“Sweetheart, you have to, we belong together! We have a wedding planned and everything!”_

_“No we don’t. I ran away on purpose, I didn’t want to be found. I think that was a pretty clear message we were over,”_

Fuck. Fuck. Her ex-fiancé had found her. How the fuck did he even find her? He went to open her front door, she always left it unlocked for him. The door didn’t budge. The bolts kept him, and anyone else, out.

_“I was just emotional, I didn’t mean it. I can buy you another one!”_  he heard him say, his word thick with annoyance.

_“I don’t want another one, I want you to leave and never come back,”_

She had a spare key somewhere. She never gave him one personally, but she hid one around her yard. If only he could remember where. He started his frantic search with her mailbox. Empty.

_“No can do, I’m not leaving without you. It took me months to track you down, but now here you are. And I can’t lose you again,”_

_“I didn’t want to be found!”_

_“Well you didn’t make it easy princess, you basically disappeared. But you turning your phone back on helped. I had to pay off a few people to figure out your location, but its worth to have you back,”_

He checked the rocks in her garden. No luck.

_“You sent me hundreds of messages about how you wanted to hurt me! You sent me a video of you **burning my wedding dress** , I’m not going anywhere with you!”_

_“Come one now, dont be dramatic, I drove all this way to come get you. Remember all the good times?”_

Clyde checked her windowsill. Nothing.

_“Nothing good you did can ever fix the awful things you did. Leave,”_

_“I don’t want to have to ask you again, I want to be nice,”_

_“I have a new life in this town. With people who care about me! I am not going anywhere with you now or ever again,”_

They were quiet for a moment, Clyde stopped looking. The silence scared him more than the yelling.

_“You’re fucking someone aren’t you?”_

_“What?”_

_“Thats why you don’t want to come back. You’re fucking someone!”_ his voice got louder.

_“My life now is none of your business,”_  she tried to hold an even tone, but Clyde could hear the waiver in her voice. She was scared.

_“I fucking knew it! I knew you were going to do this to me you little slut! How many times did I tell you? You are mine. YOU ARE MINE.”_

Clyde hears her whimper through the window. It’s too quiet, things are too tense.

“ _I’ll see you dead before I see anyone else touch you,”_  the voice came at a deadly low pitch. Clyde’s blood runs cold. Fuck the extra key, he needed to get in the house  _now_.

_“If you take one step closer—”_  he heard her say quietly, trying to maintain what little control she had.

There was a crash followed by a scream and Clyde kicked the lock in before he could even think about what he was doing. The door swung open and he pushed his way inside, looking around wildly for her.

He stopped in his tracks when he saw the scene before him, barely able to breathe. She was there in the kitchen, on the floor with her arm held in front of her face.

 A man stood over her. He was tall, handsome and dressed better than anyone in Boone County. He turned to see who was intruding. As he turned, the engagement band on his left hand became obvious. Along with the gun he was holding.

“Let. Her. Go. Now,” Clyde said, trying to keep an even tone, standing at full height. He was terrified, how could he let this escalate this far?

“Who the fuck is this?” Her ex growled, pointing the gun in her direction. Her body tensed and her eyes grew glassy and wide.

“My ex found me, I—I don’t know—Clyde, please,” She choked out, ignoring him to speak only to her savior. Her eyes were fixed on Clyde as she was frozen in fear.

“I said let her go,” Clyde repeated, focusing on the armed man.

“This your boyfriend? You’re cheating on me with a fucking cyborg? Is this what you’ve been doing out here in bumfuck West Virginia?” He roared.

He turned the gun toward Clyde. It became very apparent by his stance that this man had never fired a gun in his life. Clyde remained tense, but felt more confident he could gain control over his situation. His time in the army taught him how to disarm people. If he could get close enough, he could do this. He could keep her safe.

Before Clyde could react, she was on her feet.

“Don’t you fucking hurt him!” she yelled, wrenching him backward.

Her ex lost his balance for a second. But he was bigger than her. Strong her than her. It didn’t take him long to break from her hold, knocking her back to the ground with his free hand.

Clyde shouted her name, about to run forward, when the weapon was trained back on him. His gaze flicked between the barrel of the gun and the bruise blossoming on her jaw as she lay on the kitchen floor, looking dazed.

“She’s mine,” her ex said, his voice breaking. The gun cocked, letting Clyde know the safety was off and the next few moments could easily be his last. “She belong with me,”

“She doesn’t belong to anyone,” he responded carefully. “She’s a person, not a doll you can throw around,”

“Fuck you!” her ex screamed.

Clyde lunged toward him. A shot rang out through the trailer.

He stopped in his tracks, eyes wide. Everyone else stopped too. Dead silence followed, his heart pounding in his ears as he mentally checked over his body. He wasn’t in pain, he didn’t feel anything wrong. But that could just be shock. 

He worked up the courage to look down, fully prepared to see himself covered in blood. Fully prepared to re-live Iraq all over again. His eyes swept over his body. There was no blood, there was no bullet hole. Her ex had missed, had shot somewhere out the door. He could exhale.

He looked up toward the man in front of him, his fear was replaced with unbridled anger. Adrenaline coursed through his body as he crossed the room in three large strides. Her ex was frozen in place, seemingly shocked by the gunshot he had fired. Clyde wrenched the gun from his hand, removing the bullets with a practiced hand and throwing the weapon across the room.

His attention turned back to her ex. He wrapped a hand around his throat, picking him off the ground unceremoniously. He heard him start to wheeze, he felt hands scrambling to loosen his grip around his windpipe. He marched him out the front door, throwing him on to the grass of her front yard. There were no neighbors in sight, the nearest trailer being the newly-vacant one he and Jimmy had shared. No witnesses. No one to stop him or hold him back.

Clyde’s knees pinned her ex’s arms down. He straddled his chest, his large figure daring the man to try to fight him. He was on auto-pilot, his conscience taking the back seat to his rage. He felt his fist connect with the man’s jaw. The same place the man had hit her a few moments ago. He hit him again. And again. He noticed blood on his knuckles. It didn’t stop him. Her ex deserved it. He deserved to feel every second of pain that he’d inflicted on her.  The only thing that broke him out of his state was the sound of her voice.

“Clyde stop!  _Stop_! You’re scaring me!” she called from behind him. He looked up to see her standing in the doorway, tears running across the blossoming bruise on her jaw. Fear was in her eyes. 

He stopped. 

For her sake. 

He wanted this man to suffer, but when he looked at the damage he had done, he understood her. Her ex-fiancé’s nose was broken, blood streaming out. A black eye was forming and his jaw was going to match it. His lip was busted and he was still wheezing slightly from having his neck held so tightly. 

Clyde looked back at her, seeing her fear switch from her ex to him. He just showed her a part of himself he thought he’d left in the Middle East. He would never hurt her, never lay a hand on her, but how could she know that after seeing this?

He would never do this again, he swore to himself. He would handle things differently, he would show her that he was different. But he was going to make sure this man never came into her life again. He crouched down, leveling his face with the bloody mess in front of him. The whites of her ex’s eyes stood out from the red gushing from his nose.

“She asked me stop so I’m gonna. Even though you don’t deserve that kindness. When I get up, you’re gonna leave here and never come back. You’ve caused her enough trouble. You will stay out of her life,”

“Fuck you,” the man spit up at Clyde, leaving a trail of blood and saliva on his cheek. It took all his strength to not start hitting him again. He wiped it off and grabbed the man’s face with his prosthetic, forcing him to look him in the eye.

“She’s got photos you know. Of what you did to her. And there’s the medical bills. And unless you want to come out of this lookin’ like them photos, you’re gonna get back up, get in your car and never come back here. You won’t talk to anyone about this. If you do, she’ll bring you to court and you’ll rot in prison like you should be doing right now. And if you come back, I’ll be right here with my ‘cyborg’ arm, ready to do this. All. Over. Again,’

He pulled one of the stacks of bills out of his pocket. He let go of her ex’s chin and threw the bills at his face.

“This’ll covers her medical bills, now get,”

Her ex scrambled to his feet and to his car, gripping the cash tight in hand as he groped in his pockets for his car keys. He took one last look at the two of them as he reversed out of the driveway and took off down the street at full speed.

Clyde took a deep breath and turned to go back in her house. She was still standing in the doorway, looking at him wide-eyed and shaking slightly.

“Clyde,” she said quietly. He walked up to her and swooped his into a hug, pressing his forehead to hers. He held her tight, feeling her knees buckle once she had someone to support her.

“I’m so sorry for scarin’ you like that. I promise I’ll never behave like that again. I swear on my mama’s grave I’ll never treat you like he did, sweetheart. You’re so precious to me,”

“I believe you,” she sniffled. He knew she meant it.

“Are you alright?” he asked gently.

“I— I think so. He just walked in my house, I left it unlocked for you. He just walked right in Clyde and locked the door. I couldn’t get out. I couldn’t get to my phone. He started asking me to come home with him. I kept telling him no. He had a gun, Clyde, he could’ve— and then you came in and—” a heaving sob built up in her chest and his arms tightened around her.

“He’s never gonna bother you again, I promise you that. I’m sorry I wasn’t here sooner, that he found you,”

“It’s not your fault,” she sniffled, gripping on to his shirt.

“C’mon, let’s sit down. We’re gonna take the night off, you need to rest,”

She nodded, wiping her tears on her sleeve as he shepherded her to the bedroom. He closed the front door. The locked was busted from him kicking it in, he made a mental note to fix that tonight. He picked up the gun and the bullets off the floor of her living room, putting it off to the side so he could dispose of it later. He had her kick off her shoes, and get under the covers as he went to the kitchen to make her some hot cocoa. It was only the instant stuff, but he knew she drank it when she was upset. He brought it back to her room, where she was laying completely under the blankets. He called her name softly, and she uncovered her face.

Her eyes were red and getting puffy from crying, she still looked like she was in shock. He held out the mug for her and she slowly sat up so she could hold it. He noticed she was shaking slightly, and was having trouble bringing the cup to her mouth without drops splashing out.

“Here,” he said softly, taking the cup and setting it on the nightstand. He sat down on the bed, maneuvering her so she was sitting between his legs. He curled his arms around her and she rested her head on his chest.

“You could have died,” she whimpered, her voice thick.

“He had no idea how to shoot a gun, he couldn’t kill me even if he was right in front of me,” he reassured her.

“I’m so sorry this happened. This is all my fault,”

“None of this is your fault. I’m the one who should be sayin’ sorry, I should have been there earlier,” he murmured.

“It’s not your fault, how would we have known?” she whispered back.

“I don’t know. Are you sure you dont want to call the police? There’s more than enough evidence,”

“I’m sure. I never wanna see him again,” her mouth wavered, eyes starting to water again. “W-what if he comes back? He knows where I live now,”

“He won’t darlin’, I promise. I made sure he knows exactly what’ll happen if he ever sets foot in the state again,”

“You threw money at him, I saw it,”

“I did, it was to cover your medical bills, he wont be able to hold it over you anymore,”

“Clyde!” she pushed away from him so she could look him in the eye. “You shouldn’t have done that!”

“Why not? It’s more than enough to keep him away,”

“I can’t accept that from you, you’ve done so much already! I have to pay you back!” she tried to get up but he kept her in his arms.

“No, darlin’ you don’t,” he said firmly.

“Those bills were—”

“I know how much they were,” he said simply.

“Where did you get that kind of money? Just a few months ago you were saying you’d have to wait to fix up that crack in the window at the bar and now you’re literally throwing money at people?” she looked incredulously at her boyfriend. “Is there something you aren’t telling me?”

“I saved up is all, like you were doing,”

“I saved up for seven months and got just over half of it,”

“I came into some too,”

“ _Unlucky Clyde Logan_  came into some money?” her eye narrowed as her spoke.

“Don’t be lookin’ a gift horse in the mouth darlin’,”

“Clyde!”

“Well what was I supposed to do? He drove halfway across the country to find you, he had a gun pointed at you when I came in! I couldn’t let him hurt you, I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if he’d—” he stopped, finding himself unable to finish his sentence. He pushed the thought of her leaving his life out of his mind. “The money will keep him away, I’m sure of it,” 

He felt himself getting increasingly frustrated. He couldn’t tell her where he got the money, Jimmy would kill him.

“Look,” He grabbed her hands, stroking over her thumbs. “I want you to be safe. I dont want anythin’ to happen to you and I’ll do anythin’ to make sure of that. I had a little extra on me, I was takin’ it to the bar to hide away incase I needed it in an emergency and I think your ex coming to your home unannounced counts as an emergency,”

She was quiet, watching his hands over hers. She was still sniffling a little, but had stopped crying. She took a deep breath and looked up at him.

“Thank you. For doing that. What happened was nothing that I planned for and you were helpful during it. I would very much like to pay back what you gave him,”

“I’d rather you spend that money on somethin’ to make the house safer darlin’, a security system? Your own gun maybe?”

“No. No more guns.  _Oh my god_ , do you have a gun?”

“I don’t but Jimmy did. It was under his bed. I decided I had enough of that stuff after I came back from Iraq,”

“Alright, I’ll look into a security system if that makes you feel better. And uh—” She cleared her throat. “I know I said I didn’t want you moving in but—”

“If you’re doing this just because of him, I can sleep over more in the next couple of weeks. I know you want your place to yourself,”

“I do— but it’s not just because of him. I like having you here. I want you with me. I could have lost you today a-and I never— I never got to tell—” She looked at him, eyes bloodshot and face pink from crying.

“I love you,” She said quietly.

His heart skipped a beat for a second time that night. He’d been wanting to say those words to her for so many weeks. He knew how he felt, but he didn’t want to pressure her by saying anything too soon.

“I know this isn’t a great time to say it but it’s how I feel. You are the best thing to ever happen to me and I love you,” she continued, trying to fill the awkward silence left by Clyde being too stunned to speak.

“I love you too,” He finally said back, “I’ve been trying to work up the nerve to say it for a while now,”

“Oh God, me too,” She laughed and wiped the tears off her face. “I didn’t want to put pressure on you by saying it too soon,”

“We were thinkin’ the same thing. Thank God you said somethin’, who knows how long that could have gone on for,” he laughed, pulling her close to him.

He kissed her forehead, and then she pulled him into a kiss. He sighed as her lips touched his, loving the way she wrapped her arms around him. He stroked her cheek lovingly as they broke the kiss.

“Let’s just take it easy tonight, do you want me to bring in dinner? I have to get another lock for your door too. Sorry about that, by the way,”

“It’s alright Clyde, really. Do you mind if I come with you? I don’t want to be alone right now,” she said softly, holding his hand.

“As long as you want me, you won’t be alone darlin,”

She smiled as he pulled her up off the bed with him and into a kiss. He was gonna stay by her side for as long as she needed. His heart swelled as he thought of how much he loved her, and how now knew she felt the same. 

They headed out her front door, closing it as best they could behind them, off to face the world, hand in hand. 


	11. Chapter 11

Celebrating committing a heist isn’t something Clyde really knew how to do, but him and his partners in crime eventually settled on a round of shots. Everyone came to Duck Tape to cheers in the most discreet may possible. Jimmy and his new girlfriend came in from out of state, Mellie came from the salon and the Bang brothers trudged in from their various homes. The bar was fairly busy that night, and no one was paying much attention to the small group.

Clyde went around the bar giving everyone shots, and he meant everyone. He gave out free shots to everyone in the establishment with the help his girlfriend. People across the bar shouted their thanks to him for the round. He noticed one lone patron sitting at the far end of the bar. Her glass was empty and she was staring straight at him.

“Another especiál for the lady?”

“Yes, but make it a double, it’s bad luck to toast on your own,”

“That it is” he said with a little smile, he poured two shots and sent one her way. They smiled at one another and toasted.

“I’d remember if i’d seen you around before,” he said

“I’m not from around here, but i think ill stick around for a while,” she said, leaning her body over the bar while looking him up and down.

He felt a little flustered, he wasn’t used to women flirting with him so openly. He nodded in her direction and walked away.

“Your face is all red, are you okay?” his girlfriend asked as he approached her at the other end of the bar.

“I think that woman was flirtin’ with me,” he said nervously, not knowing how his girlfriend would react to that statement.

“Aw look at you, I’ve never seen your face turn that color before,” she cooed, “She probably was, you’re cuter than you give yourself credit for,”

“A-and you’re okay with that? Customers flirtin’ with me?”

“I mean, you’re still coming home with me, right?” he nodded in response, “Then it’s all good. We’re bartenders, people love to flirt with people who give them drinks, its part of the job,”

“Thank you darlin’,”

“I think she’s waving you over again, go get her,” she said, sending him off with a hand squeeze.

“She’s probably gonna ask for a blood moon, it’s that time of night,”

“Wait, you know her?”

“Yeah, she came here a couple times while you were in jail. She works for the FBI. One time she came in asking about that hillbilly heist that happened back in May, but I didn’t know much about all that, so we shot the breeze. She asked about who owned the bar and stuff,”

“Did you just say she’s an FBI agent?” his voice dropped and he gripped her hand.

“Yeah, but it looks like she’s off duty right now,”

“What did she ask you about?”

“Just what I had heard, mostly. And then where you were and if anyone was helping me out with the bar, if I had the funds to keep it going while you were away. It was pretty friendly stuff, I think she was just concerned that I was running the bar by myself. Why is something wrong?”

“If she asks anything else just stay as neutral as possible,” he said quietly, meeting her gaze as a very intense level.

“Clyde, you’re acting funny,” she whispered, studying his face.

“Everything is fine, don’t worry, just don’t talk to her,”

“You’re not telling me something. Are you in trouble?”

“I’ll tell you later, just please don’t so anything until I talk to you,” he pleaded, letting her hand go and walking back over to the woman. She smiled as she handed him her empty glass.

He stole a peak back at his girlfriend, who’s brow was slightly furrowed as she gawked at him. She eventually just shook her head and went back to serving the other end of the bar. The guilt weighed heavy on his chest. He didn’t want to keep anything from her, the woman he was sharing his life with. But he couldn’t talk about it Not right now.

———————————

The bar was officially closed a few hours later. The woman had left around 11:00pm, and the rest of the patrons petered out after. All that was left was Jimmy, Mellie, his girlfriend and himself. His siblings weren’t aware of the current tension in the room between the two of them. He would steal glances at her throughout the night, she would refuse to meet his gaze every time. She worked quickly and quietly to clean the bar, avoiding any small talk.

“I’m gonna tell her,” he said to his siblings as she left the room to go restock napkins.

“You’re gonna tell her what?” Jimmy asked slowly

“About the heist. She told me that woman who was sitting across the bar from y’all is an FBI agent. She came in a few months ago asking all sorts of questions about me and the bar. She’s getting dragged into this, I gotta tell her,”

“Now, I dont think thats a good idea—“

“She won’t tell no one,” Mellie spoke over her brother, “Besides, if that woman is gonna be poking around, we could use another set of ears,”

Jimmy looked unconvinced.

“What are we gonna do if she slips up?” he asks.

“We had the Bang brothers in on this and you’re worried about  _her_ slipping up?” Mellie reasoned.

“She’d got a point,” Clyde mumbled.

“I don’t believe y’all. If we get caught, we’re goin’ away to jail for forever,” Jimmy’s brow furrowed as he spoke.

“She won’t tell no one,” Clyde spoke with certainty. He needed to do this. He stared down his brother, who was returning the intense eye contact.

“She won’t do anything to endanger Clyde,” Mellie reassured.

Jimmy was silent for a moment, his jaw shifting as he ground his teeth. Clyde knew that look, he wasn’t happy with younger siblings. But Clyde was going to back down. This was important to him. She was important to him. He took another look at his brother, his expression remaining firm. Jimmy rolled his eyes after a few moments, he knew he wasn’t going to win this fight against his little brother. He shook his head and waved his hand, Clyde could do what he wanted.

She came back in to the room with a box of napkins and they quickly dispersed.

“I’ll be ready to go in ten if you’re all done too,” she said, making eye contact with him for the first time in hours.

He nodded and motioned to his siblings that it was time to leave. They got up and said their goodbyes, leaving the two alone.

As promised, Clyde and her locked up and got into her car ten minutes later. She turned the key and her car sprang to life in the darkness of the night. They drove down the road to her house. It was dead quiet for the first few minutes. Clyde didn’t know what to say to her, and she certainly wasn’t talking. Just as he was about to open his mouth and begin to explain, she spoke.

“So when were you planning on telling me that you were part of the hillbilly heist?” He froze.

“What makes you say that?” he asked slowly, trying to figure out how she pieced that together in just a few hours.

“Well, after you started acting strange after I brought up the FBI lady, I thought about the kinds of questions she asked me. She had a lot of questions about how you landed in jail, and how I was getting the money to run Duck Tape. Then she asked me what I thought about that robbery, and I didn’t know much about it at the time. Hell, they gave the money back, there wasn’t much to say. And you were in jail, hours away from Speedway. It never even crossed my mind that you could be involved.

But then I started thinking about that money you gave to my ex. That was a lot Clyde, more than just savings. So I peaked around the storage room and found a few stacks of bills hidden away in a box of straws on the shelf you thought I couldn’t reach,”

She took her eyes off the road for a minute to get a good look at her boyfriend. He shifted uncomfortably in her gaze, having trouble making direct eye contact.

“I didn’t know how to tell you,” he said simply, “It was before we were together, and Jimmy wanted to keep it in the family after we did,”

“I can understand that,” she had her eyes back on the road.

“I didn’t even know Jimmy had kept any of the money, I thought all of it was on that truck they found. He didn’t tell me until I got out of jail. And we only got our hands on it a few weeks ago. It’s complicated,”

“I’m sure it is, especially if the FBI hasn’t figured it out by now,”

“You didn’t tell her anything, right?”

“Of course not,” she furrowed her brow “I’m not gonna tell anyone,”

He knew she wouldn’t, but it was still relief to hear her say it.

“Thank you darlin’,” he said quietly.

They pulled into the driveway, and she turned off the engine, leaving them in the darkness. He looked over at her, their eyes adjusting in the dark.

“I love you, no matter what crazy thing you got into,” she assured him. She grabbed his hand, which dwarfed hers as she brought it to her lips for a quick kiss.

“I love you too,” he said, those three words carrying more meaning than he could say in a thousand others.

“Let’s go inside and talk this out, we need a united front if you want that lady to stop poking around,”

———————————

The “United Front” took the form of a meeting. Everyone who was involved in the heist needed to meet up and figure this out. The main problem of this was meeting just about anywhere in Boone County would draw a lot of suspicion. They didn’t know anything about this agent or who she may have in on this, and they were a large group. They would have to find a place where they could talk in peace.

Meeting at a diner in Kingsport, Tennessee in the middle of the night had been Jimmy’s idea. It was far enough away that they wouldn’t have to worry about being tailed, and the diner was open all night. They would take separate cars and come in at slightly different times, just to make sure.

Jimmy and Mellie were already there by the time Clyde and her had arrived. It was nearly midnight, Clyde let the new hires take over that night. He knew the lady didn’t typically come in on that day so she wouldn’t be around the ask questions. He was thankful for the night off, but would much rather spend it at home with her instead of driving three hours to plot.

They slid into the booth with the rest of the Logan siblings, promptly ordering coffee in order to stay awake. This was gonna be a long night.

“Where’re the Bang brothers?” Clyde asked.

“Late as always,” Mellie grumbled, picking at a plate of fries.

“They’d better be here soon, we got work to do,” Jimmy looked exhausted, still wearing his work clothes.

The Bang brothers walked in about ten minutes later, making their way over to the table loudly.

“Quiet down, you’re supposed to be discreet,” Jimmy hissed as they said into the booth.

“You had us drive 3 damn hours, I ain’t taking no lip,” Joe shot back.

“It’s better than being in jail again and you know it. Did y'all park separate? Away from the building?“ Jimmy asked.

The younger brothers looked at each others, slightly dumbstruck.

"We just parked in the lot,” a collective groan came from the rest of the table.

“Get to movin’ your cars, you’re gonna screw us,” Joe made one of the brothers get up and move the car. He turned his attention ruin back to the table, finally noticing there was an extra person.

“Now I’d remember if someone as pretty as you was mixed up in all this,” he smiled, his piercing blue eyes cutting right through her.

“She’s Clyde’s girlfriend,” Jimmy said plainly.

“We’ll good for you for datin’ up,” Joe teased the younger Logan brother. She simply put her hand on top of his prosthetic one, staring back at the man.

“He’s datin’ just where he needs to be,” she said defensively, giving him a little squeeze.

“Well that still don’t explain what you’re doing here,” his voice became firmer.

“She’s involved, she knows about the cauliflower plan,” Clyde said, finding his voice. If looks could kill, Joe Bang just made the diner into a war zone.

“You mean to tell me,” he leaned over the table, voice dangerously low, “that you Logans have been involving outsiders in this?”

“She wasn’t told, she figured it out,” Mellie defended her. “And someone else, who could put us all away, is closin’ in on us and she’s got information that can keep us outta cuffs. So shut your mouth and listen to her,”

“This just don’t seem  _discreet_  is all,” Joe continued.

“I’m keepin my mouth shut, I’m not here to cause trouble,” she said, not liking this man who was questioning her.

“I’m sure you are sweetheart, but this smells like trouble,”

“Not anymore trouble than what your brothers have been kicking up. Going around town spending too much money,” Mellie shot

“Hey!” A brother says as he re-enters the diner, just in time to hear her.

“We’re spending our money accordion-ly" the other said from his seat next to Joe.

“It’s  _accordingly_ , and  _no_  you’re not. People are noticing, they aren’t supposed to notice anything different,” Mellie pointed a long manicured nail his way.

“Can we just get to the point?” Jimmy silenced everyone with a look. “Clyde, fill everyone in before they start going for each others throats,”

“There’s been a lady spending a lot of time at the bar recently,” Clyde started, turning his prosthetic hand upward so she could lace her fingers with his. “This one works at the bar with me, she told me the lady was an FBI agent who asked a lot of questions while I was in jail,”

“I thought the FBI was done pokin around,” Joe raised an eyebrow

“So did we. But she’s been sticking around, askin’ all sorts of questions,” Clyde continued. “I’ve been trying to keep things outta that topic. My girl’s been helping me with that. But we needs to get this woman off our tail,”

“Agreed,” Jimmy and Mellie said simultaneously.

“And you’re certain she’s FBI?” Joe asked her, staring her down once more.

“Positive. She flashed her badge the first time she came in,” she answered, returning the stare.

“What we need is a plan. We gotta keep a consistent story. If someone asks you where you were during the heist, make somethin’ up and stick with it. And make sure your cut of the money is good and hid. And no more spendin’!” Jimmy pointed at the younger Bang brothers who began to protest but were stopped by a wave of Joe’s hand.

“All is agreed. We’ll keep an eye out for the lady agent. And we’ll steer clear of your bar. How’re y'all plannin’ to get rid of her?”

“Were not sure,” Clyde admitted.

“Were just kinda waiting for her to realize she’s got nothin,” she piped up. “She’s gotta hit a dead end at some point,”

Right?

————-

The plan was pretty simple, play dumb. They’d act like nothing was wrong, going about their days like the FBI agent trying to turn the Logan family in for grand larceny wasn’t a threat. Jimmy, Mellie and the other accomplices were notified of the agent’s activity when she came in to the bar. Millie mentioned the woman came into the salon for a haircut, and that she was able to answer anything she’d asked at least half-truthfully. Jimmy thought he saw her poking about North Carolina but she never approached him directly. Her main target seemed to be Duck Tape and Clyde.

She came in every few days, always ordered the same drink, always sat in the same spot. Clyde and his girlfriend switched out being her bartender, she seemed interested enough in both of them. Lots of questions passed off as casual chit-chat, and lots of requests to drink with her, but the two were always on guard. Any questions about Clyde’s life were answered as truthfully and as neutrally as possible. But as the weeks passed, he began feeling more and more worn down.

“She’s gotta know something we don’t, why else would she still be here?” he whispered to her in the storage room. They were retrieving extra glasses and getting a chance to sneak away and talk.

“I think she’s just fishing at this point, she keeps asking the same shit over and over,” she said, taking a crate of clean glasses in her arms.

“And she keeps touchin’ me now, I think she thinks flirtin’ with me will help,” he was exasperated, three weeks of constantly having his guard up was draining.

“I know sweetheart, I think she’ll give up soon. After I caught her snooping around the back that one time when she told us she was looking for the bathroom, she started coming back less. And we took the cash you hid here back to my place, theres nothing here for her,”

“I hope you’re right,” he turned to leave the storage room.

“Hey,” she called, setting the crate down for a moment. He walked back over to her, and she pulled him down into a quick kiss. “You look nice today,”.

“Helps when I have someone to roll up my sleeves all proper,” he smiled, kissing her back. He let his hands slide down to the curve of her ass.

“We’ve got work to do, save that for later,” she moved away from his grasp, picking up the extra glasses and exiting the storage closet with a smile. He chuckled at her and followed.

The FBI woman was still in her seat at the bar, the rest of the space was scarcely filled by the weeknight patrons. She was nursing her tequila, rolling the liquid around in her glass. His girl went to the other side of the bar to stock glasses, as Clyde tended to his customers.

“Can I get you anything else?” he asked her as he made his rounds.

“You can get yourself a drink, on me,” she smiled, sliding some bills over the counter.

“You’re too kind but I really shouldn’t ma’am, I’m working,”

“Working too hard, take a break. The other bartender’s got this, right?” she called over to her, who gave a tight smile and finished stacking the glasses.

Clyde looked over to her to gauge her reaction. She raised her eyebrow and nodded her head, giving him the go-ahead. They had talked about how he should just play along with whatever she wanted. And if that woman thought a single drink would suddenly get him to tell all his secrets, she’d clearly never spent a night drinking with the Logan family. He poured himself a drink and slid it to the other side of the bar, walking around the counter to sit with her.

“So how long did it take for you to learn to make drinks with one hand?” she asked with a coy smile on her face.

“It was a lot of trial and error, took maybe a few months? It’s a little easier with my current hand, my last one was just plastic,”

“When did you get an upgrade?”

“The VA sent me this almost half a year ago at this point,” he thought about how fast time had passed since then.

“Oh? What was the occasion? They don’t seem to just hand out something like that— no pun intended,”

He felt a chill down his spine. He realized he might have walked into a trap. Jimmy had gone through paperwork and a good chunk of cash to get him his current prosthesis. Cash they shouldn’t have had in the first place.

“It was part of some research program,” he said. “The VA said I would be a good candidate for a Myoelectric prosthesis, I go to Richmond every few months and they run tests on me,” It wasn’t a complete lie, he did go out of state every few months to have it checked on.

“Well its sounds like you must be pretty exceptional then,” she watched as he sipped his drink.

“I wouldn’t say so,”

“You’re selling yourself short,” she said, “I think you don’t give yourself enough credit,”

He felt a blush creep up his neck, he still wasn’t used to being hit on, even after this lady’s persistence.

“W-well, thank you,” he managed to stutter out.

“I’m about to head on out for the night. I’ve been staying just down the road. If you want, you could come with me?” her hand wandered to his thigh.

His whole body froze as her hand squeezed the top of his thigh. It was the boldest thing she had tried yet, and he wasn’t sure how to be polite about it.

“I-I’m sorry ma’am, but I don’t go home with customers,”

“Now Clyde, I’d like to think that you think I’m a little more than just a customer,” she ran her hand up and down the denim.

“I-I gotta stay and take care of the bar,”

“Oh, your  _coworker_  can cover for the rest of the night,” she nodded over to her.

He was afraid to see her expression. His hair shielded a good portion of his view of her, but he could see that she was aware of what was going on.

“Ma’am, thank you for the offer, but I gotta decline,” he removed her hand and got up from his seat.

“Suit yourself. Just know I’ll keep the offer open,” she winked as she gathered her purse and coat. Her heels clacked against the wooden floor as she left the bar.

Clyde stood their slightly stunned as she left. Had that actually just happened? As he willed himself to move behind the bar again, he came face to face with her. She looked angry.

“What the fuck was that?”

“I—she asked me to go home with her. I said no, I swear,” His words tumbled out quickly, rushing to reassure her that he would never cheat on her.

“Oh! Oh god, I’m so sorry, I’m not mad at you,” Her gaze softened and reached out and gave his arm a squeeze “I’m mad at her, I think she was trying to get you to open up to her by sleeping with you,”

“I think you’re right,” he chewed on his lip “You know I would never do that to you, right? Go home with someone else? Even if it means getting caught,”

“Well, I dont think it’ll come down to that, but thank you. I wouldn’t do that to you either,” She took his hands in hers, examining the difference of the metal and flesh.

“I think she was trying to get me drunk too, she’s always buying me drinks when she comes around,”

“Mhm, I’ve noticed. She’s clearly never drank with any Logan before,” she said, earning a small laugh out of him.

“So we’re alright? You know she came on to me and not the other way around?”

“I know Clyde, I trust you,” she tugged him closer by his hands, “Though if we’re being honest, I did feel a little bit jealous when I saw her hand on your thigh,”

“I’m sorry darlin’, I froze up,”

“No, it’s okay,” she went on her toes so she could whisper in his ear, “That feeling went away pretty quickly when I remembered that’s the same part of the bar that you bent me over and fucked me on,”

He felt his face instantly grow red again.

“Is that so, darlin’?” he untangled his hands from hers and let them drop to her hips.

“Mhm, so I dont think there’s much to worry about. Though I may have a surprise for you at home,” She said quietly, making sure no one was looking at them as she ran a hand up his clothed length. She could feel him begin to harden under her touch.

“Oh? What kind of surprise?” His hands tightened on her hips, but she moved out of his grasp.

“Now, you’ll just have to wait and see, won’t you?” she teased as she walked away.

This was gonna be a long night.


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> NSFW Chapter!

If patience was truly a virtue, Clyde was going to petition to be canonized. The rest of the gruelingly slow shift was made up of her finding ways to tease him. She would bend over the tables to hand drinks to customers, letting him get a good view of her ass, then sway her hips as she walked back behind the bar. She would brush past him, letting her fingers graze over his bicep as she walked away. It was never enough for the patrons to catch on to, but enough for it to become increasingly harder for Clyde to hide his frustration.

The last straw was after they had closed and started to clean up. She had sat on the counter top as he cleaned, taking one of the cherries they used as garnish into her mouth. She made a point to suck on it before taking a bite. Some of the juice ran down the corner of her mouth and she caught it with her finger, which she drew into her mouth to lick clean. She let out a faint moan, catching his eye and smiling.

He put down his rag and walked over to her. He gently pushed her knees to the side so he could stand between them as she sat on the bar. She took her finger out of her mouth with a pop and grabbed another cherry, dangling it in front of his face.

“Do you want one?”

“If we dont go home right now, I dont think we’ll  _make_  it home,” he gripped the top of her thighs, scooting her across the counter to him.

“I’ve got you all worked up don’t I?” she smiled and pushed him back so she could slide off the counter “Let’s go home sweetheart, I’ve made you wait long enough,”

They turned off the lights and locked the door to the bar, they’d worry about any forgotten chores in the morning. They had taken Clyde’s car to work that night. He took his keys out of his pocket and walked over to the driver side door.

“Now, no teasin’ me while I’m drivin’. I wanna get there in one piece,” he pointed a finger at her as she opened the passengers side door.

“ _Fiiiiine_ ,” she rolled her eyes in fake-annoyance. They got in the car and drove down the dark road toward home.

The drive was quiet and tense, with neither of them speaking. He racked his brain as to what kind of surprise she could possibly have for him. She hadn’t done anything like this before, so he was at a loss for what to expect. They pulled into the drive way of her house a few minutes later and got out of the car.

She walked in front of him to the door, and let them in. As soon as the door closed behind him his arms snaked around her waist and pulled her to him, desperate for any contact. She giggled as he pulled her flush against him and kissed down her neck.

“I thought I asked for you to be patient,” she ground her ass into his groin, earning a low moan out of him.

“I’m tryin’, but it’s hard when you spend half the night teasin’ me,” He groped her breasts over the fabric of her shirt.

She turned around so their chests were pressed together. She cradled his face with her hand and brought him into a fierce kiss. Her lips felt like fire against his. He returned the kiss with full force, tangling his fingers in her hair to bring her closer to him. The kiss finally broke with the two of them gasping for air. She slipped out of his grasp once more, standing at arms length.

“If you want your surprise, you have to follow my instructions,” He tried to bring her closer to him but she just pushed him back. “One, go sit down on the edge of the bed. Two, you have to keep your eyes closed until I say you can open them,” He groaned in protest.

“And three,” she said sternly, “If you don’t follow my instructions, you wont get to cum,”

He nodded quickly and walked to the bedroom, shutting the door behind him. He sat on the edge of the bed and closed his eyes. His breath quickened in anticipation, she had never been so direct during sex, but he was loving it. He listened for any noise indicating she was coming, but was met with silence.

After a few moments, he heard the bedroom door open and shut again. Her footsteps were quiet as she closed the space between them. His eyes fluttered as he felt her hand ghost across his cheek, but he kept them shut. He could feel the heat from her body as she stood in front of him. She finally closed the gap between them, crawling on to the bed and straddling his lap. He felt her bare skin graze his arms and she settled her legs on either side of his thighs. He could hear her breathing pick up as her core met his.

Suddenly, he felt the sensation of her unbuttoning his shirt. She did this slowly, taking her time, trailing her hands down his chest after she finished. A groan escaped his lips as her hands grazed the trail of hair just above his belt. She pulled away.

“Open your eyes,” she breathed.

He obeyed. She was straddled on top of him wearing nothing but black lace. Her breasts were barely covered by a sheer bra that made Clyde want to bury his face in her chest and never leave. His gaze drifted down to see she was wearing a matching thong. She shifted her hips against his, raising her arms to rest on his shoulders. Her hair was down and fell in her face as she looked at him expectantly.

He was speechless, unable to find any words to describe how gorgeous she looked. He drew a hand from her collar bone, down to the valley between her breasts, past her stomach, finally cupping her lace-covered core. She took a sharp breath as his large, calloused hand met the lace between her thighs. He let out a low moan, she was already wet for him.

“I don’t know what I did to deserve you darlin’,” he ran his hands up her body, stopping to cradle her face with them.

“Do you like it?” She asked nervously, biting her lower lip. He’d never seen her wear this before, he wasn’t even sure when she bought it. But he almost didn’t want her to take it off. Almost.

“I love it darlin’,” He assured her, caressing her cheek. “I love  _you_ ,”

She closed the distance between them, kissing him passionately. He returned full force, hands leaving her face to trail back down her body. The way the lace felt under his hands, mixed with her breathy moans, went straight to his groin. She noticed his jeans were getting tighter and ground down on him as they kissed. His tongue entered her mouth and she began puling his shirt off.

“You lay back and enjoy the view, sweetheart, I’ll take care of you tonight,” she whispered between kisses.

She threw the shirt across the room and pushed him down on the bed. Feathery kisses were planted down his chest, her hands running down his arms. As she planted a final kiss on his hipbone, she began undoing his belt. She stood up to pull his pants on to the floor, allowing him to work his way up the bed further. He was visibly tenting in his boxers, desperate for her to touch him.

She climbed back on the bed, kneeling to the side as she ran a single finger over his cotton-covered cock. His hips bucked, hand moving to grip her hip. She allowed him to play with the lace of her thong as she fingered his waistband. He raised his hips in an effort to help her remove them, and they were thrown to the floor with the rest of his clothes. Clyde hissed as the cool night air came in contact with his hard member. She momentarily stopped, pulling a condom from the beside table and unwrapping it. She stared at him hungrily, holding it in her hand as she lowered her head to his hips.

He stifled a moan as she gripped his base and began pumping him. She started almost painfully slow, hand moving over the tip of his cock, using his precum as lubricant. His head pushed back into the mattress as she began working a rhythm with her hand. She began to stroke his cock with her hands as she brought her tongue to his balls. She swirled expertly over them, drawing one into her mouth and sucking lightly as her hands began to work his cock at a faster pace. He was a moaning mess under her, unable to do much but lie back and let her work.

She stopped stroking as she licked her way up his shaft. Her tongue swirled around the tip of his cock, dipping in to the slit to gather the bead of pre cum that had formed. Her name left his lips, sounding much needier than he intended. She took the condom from her hand, rolling it over just the tip, before rolling the rest down with her mouth, taking him completely. His hand tangled in her hair as he was engulfed in wet heat.

Her name became a prayer, tumbling from his lips as she worked his member between her own. She made a point to maintain eye contact as she pulled off him with a pop, a string of saliva running from her lips to his painfully hard cock.

“Darlin’, please,” he breathed, hand stroking her hair from her face. “I want you,”

“You’re gonna have to be more specific,” she teased as she ran her finger around the base of his cock, but never touching it. “What do you want?”

“Sweetheart don’t tease me,” he groaned, trying to sit up. She splayed her hands on his chest and used her weight to hold him down.

“If you want me to keep going, I wanna hear what you want babe,” She moved to straddle him again. Her clothed pussy rubbed at the base of his penis as she leaned to keep him down. He moved his hips to create the friction he desperately craved and she pulled away.  “I  _said_  I wanna hear you,”

“Please, I want to be inside you. I want to feel you ride me. I want to make you feel so good darlin’,” Clyde didn’t know where this was coming from. He’d never pleaded before, but he was so desperate for her touch. He would do anything for her.

“That’s more like it,” she smirked, letting herself grind into him. His eyes closed as a nearly-pornographic moan left his mouth. His hands dug into the skin of her sides, trying to ensure she wouldn’t be able to pull away again.

She still managed to work her way out of his grip, moving off his lap to the side of the bed. She made full eye contact with him as she slowly removed her panties, lace slipping down her hips as slow as syrup. He knew if he reached out to touch her she would stop, so he did his best to keep his hands to himself.

She threw the panties to the floor, arms then moving behind her to unclasp the bra. She slowly let each of the straps fall off her shoulders as she kept the cups in place with her hands. She must have seen the silent pleading in his eyes, because she smiled.

“You’ve been waiting so patiently,” she said, letting the fabric fall ever so slightly.

“I’ve been tryin’,” he smiled back, propping himself up on his elbows to get a better look.

“Is it time for me to stop teasin’ you so much?” she pushed the bra back up, making her breasts swell.

“I think so, ma’am,” he answered quietly, cock twitching at the sight. She smiled at his southern politeness being used in such an impolite setting. She dropped her bra off the bed, exposing herself fully to him.

“Ma’am?” she asked, straddling back over his lap. She leaned down so her chest was pressed against his, lips hovering so close he could feel her breath. “I think I like the sound of that,”

She crushed her lips against his, hands moving to keep his hands in place. Clyde’s whole body tensed as he felt her slick cunt grind on his shaft. She was as turned on by this as he was. She moaned into the kiss as she ran herself up his length to the tip of his cock, circling her hips as the head teased her entrance.

She broke the kiss to rest her forehead against his. For a moment they just looked into each others eyes, chests heaving as they fought to catch their breath. She removed one of her hands from his arm, bringing it up to run across his beard.

She sat up and moved her hips back so she was position right above his cock. He noticed it was glistening from her juices, head becoming almost purple under the latex. He hadn’t been this painfully hard in a very long time, and was desperate to relieve it. 

She splayed one hand on his chest for balance, the other moving to the base of his cock to hold him steady as she began to lower herself on to him. She moved excruciatingly slow, making Clyde’s breath hitch as her warm cunt finally came in to contact with the head. She circled her hips once more, coating him with her juices. He dropped his back on the mattress when she lowered herself further. His hands resting at her hips as he watched his cock slowly work its way inside her.

Inch by inch she lowered herself on to him, maintaining full eye contact as she did. When his cock would involuntarily twitch, making her smile. She was about 3/4’s of the way down when she started to work her way up again. Faster than before but still slower than Clyde would have liked.

Every part of him felt like it was on fire. His nerves were screaming for him to move, to pound into her. But as much as the pace she had set was frustratingly slow, he found himself painfully aroused. Her movements had forced him to focus on every single detail. How her hair fell over her shoulders, how her breasts rose and fell as she breathed, how her stomach tightened as she lowered herself on to him again, how her pussy stretched and pulsed around him.

“You’re so beautiful,” he breathed. She gave a small smile, her lust-blown eyes softening just slightly.

“You’re not so bad yourself,” she said softly, her fingers tracing over his pectorals.

“Not so bad?” he teased. He knew she liked him, but he wanted to hear it.

“You’re  _devastatingly_  handsome,” she said, making him chuckle. “No, it’s true! I got tall, dark, and handsome all to myself, I won the damn lottery,” she ran a hand through his hair, pulling herself up his cock once more.

“I think you’re still teasin’ me,” he tugged at her hips, trying to get her to sit on his cock.

“Am I?” she feigned innocence. “How’s this for teasin’?”

The words had barely left her mouth as she shoved herself full to the hilt. Both gasped, indulging in the sensation. Clyde’s hands held her in place and he thrust into her. He groaned loudly, unconcerned with how he sounded. All that mattered was her. She threw her head back, hands griping his shoulders as she matched his thrusts with her own. Her lips parted into a perfect “o”, breasts bouncing as he pounded into her. His flesh hand left her hip to reach between her thighs, thumb resting on her clit.

“Oh,  _fuck_ ,” her eyes shot open as he began rubbing her in small, tight circles. She fell forward, catching her hands on either side of his head, giving him the perfect view of her breasts.

He leaned up, kissing her breasts before taking a nipple in his mouth and sucking. She moaned, pace beginning to stutter. He ground his thumb harder on her clit, as his teeth grazed her sensitive skin.

“ _Clyde_ ,” she breathed, her walls beginning to flutter around him.

“Fuck, you feel so good,” he grunted, feeling her thighs tense around his hips as he pushed her closer to the edge.

“I’m— I’m—” was all she managed to get out before her lips parted in a silent scream. Her cunt clenched around him, making her feel impossibly tight. She buried her face in the crook of his neck as he helped her through her climax.

Her pace slowed to a halt as she came down from her high. Clyde removed his fingers from her now over-sensitive nub, moving them to draw lazy lines over her back. He peppered her in kisses as she caught her breath, still seated on his cock. After a moment, she lifted herself up to rest her forehead against her lover’s.

“You doin’ okay there sweetheart?” he asked quietly.

She gave a little nod.

“We can stop if you want, I don’t wanna tire you out,” he offered.

She shook her head this time.

“I want to keep going, you haven’t finished yet,”

“I don’t have to,”

“Clyde, I want to do this, I want to make you cum,” she reassured, pushing herself back up.

She put her hands on his chest and began slowly moving up and down his cock once more. The remnants of her climax began to leak out of her, lubricating every stroke she made. His hands rested at her hips once more as she began to pick up her pace. It wasn’t long before she was bouncing on his cock. The sound of skin hitting skin echoed in the room as their thrusts became more urgent.

She stroked at his nipples, a place she had found on Clyde to be extra sensitive. He growled in response, fingers digging in to her flesh as he lifted his hips to meet hers. He was growing closer with every stroke and with his girlfriend riding him like a derby horse, he know he wouldn’t last much longer.

“I’m close darlin’,” he gritted out, trying to hold back his orgasm until she was ready for him.

“Cum for me baby, I wanna feel you,” she moaned, eyes darkened with lust.

She leaned forward, changing the angle of her hips. She licked a long stripe up his neck before kissing him fiercely. Incoherent stutters left his throat as his pace became uneven. His balls drew tighter, the knot in his stomach just moment away from bursting.

His climax hit him like a freight train. All he could do was hold on to her hips for dear life as he emptied himself inside her. Every muscle in his body tensed. She clenched her cunt around his cock, milking him of every last drop. Not a single thought could pass through his brain, only the feeling of absolute ecstasy.

He breathed for what felt like the first time in hours as he came down from his high. The grip on her hips softened and his muscles turning to jello. She moved her mouth to plant kisses along his jawline, hands moving to card through his hair lovingly. His hips stilled, but she remained sheathed on him as she called his name.

“How’re you feeling sweetheart?” she asked softly.

“I think y’knocked me out,” he said, only partially aware of the dopey grin he was sporting. She laughed, kissing his nose before nuzzling it with hers.

“So that was good?”

“Darlin’, that was so good I don’t think I’m gonna be much use to you for the rest of the night,” he was becoming aware of how tired he was.

“That’s alright,” she said, lifting herself off him.

She settled down on to her side of the bed as Clyde got up to remove the condom. As soon as it was thrown in the trash, he moved back to the bed. He noticed he stepped on something soft as he walked. He stopped to pick it up, realizing it was her bra. The lace now felt cool to his touch after being away from her body for so long.

“You coming back?” she asked from the bed. He dropped the bra back to the floor and joined her under the covers. He spooned her, loving the way their bodies fit together so perfectly.

“Were you wearin’ that get-up all day long sweetheart?” he asked, fingers tracing up and down her body as he spoke.

“Hmmmm-maybe,” she sighed, eyes closed and relishing his proximity. “It seemed to be a pretty good surprise,”

“You should wear it more often,”

“Oh, I will be,” she smiled.


	13. Chapter 13

There seemed to be no end in sight for the Unlucky Logans. The agent would show up week after week, starting a tab that she never closed out at the end of the night. 

“I’ll be back, no need to close it,” She’d wink at Clyde. 

The tab only grew faster as she offered drinks to her favorite one-armed bartender. He’d accept some days, when he was feeling strong enough to entertain her, but would reject it most of the time.

Grey rocking quickly became the objective. Any prompt she offered, any bait she put down, Clyde played dumb. He acted as thought he knew nothing of what she was saying, keeping any answers neutral, offering her nothing in return.

He’d let his girl take over some days, when he didn’t have the energy to fend off the agent. He felt bad afterward, it felt like he was putting her up for trial, but she always assured him she could hold her own. 

_‘Think of it as tag-teaming,’_  She told him one night.  _‘When you need a break, I’m right here to tap in,”_

Nights became restless, alternating between falling asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow, and staying up until dawn worrying about the situation. They re-hid the money together, stashing it in the most discreet places they could find around her trailer. He felt guilty about that too. It was her house if it all went down. As the weeks turned into months, the “investigation” began to wear on the couple more and more.

_“Why couldn’t she be hangin’ around the salon? Or botherin’ Jimmy at his job? Why’s it gotta be my bar?” He’d grit out, hand clenching the arm of the sofa. He was sick of being the target, of this falling primarily on him._

_“Because she thinks she’s got you. But she doesn’t. You’re gonna get though this. We’re gonna get through this," She responded calmly, peppering his face with kisses._

_“I sure hope so,” His face was drawn into a tight frown despite her kisses._

He wanted to pull her into his arms and know that everything was going to be alright, but that was getting harder and harder to imagine. He’d open the bar every night, hoping that the agent wouldn’t walk in. That she’d get bored of this game and he could be free again. Be free with  _her_  again. But the door would open and the agent would sit in her usual seat, smiling up at him like a shark.

It was an especially cold night outside. The frost had crept up the front window, making the light from the Coors sign appear hazy from the outside. Clyde kept the bar as warm as he could for his patrons, but it was still a little chilly. The heater wasn’t what it used to be and with the heist money stashed away, he had no way of paying to fix it. His usual patrons didn’t mind much, they’d warm up with beer and whiskey anyways. His girl would joke that it was Duck Tape’s attempt at icing the agent out.

_‘The bar knows. It’s hoping she’ll get cold and go home,’_  S _he laughed as she threw on a sweater the day after the plumber gave them the diagnosis._

She was wearing one of his favorites today, a baby blue sweater that fit her just right. The agent was having trouble finding clothes that shielded her from the climate. She’d always opt for low-cut shirts, no matter the heater’s condition. 

Today was no exception for the agent. She shimmied out of her coat to reveal a black sleeveless top that was cut to show off her cleavage. He’d avoided looking at it for most of the night as he made polite conversation with the woman who was trying to ruin his life. Their chat slowly turned for the worse as they spoke.

“So I heard some gossip today,” She started slowly. She’d been shooting the breeze with him at the bar for about an hour, just small talk. He now realized she was probably trying to get him to loosen up for whatever she was about to say.

“Yeah, what about?” Clyde asked, cautious about what she might say.

“I heard a guy stopped over at the diner before leaving town a few weeks back. One of the waitresses said he walked in with a huge wad of cash in his hand, looking like he’d seen a ghost,”

The woman was watching him closely for a reaction. He could see his girlfriend stop stacking glasses at the counter out of the corner of his eye.

"He told her he was trying to visit his fiancée, and a guy with a metal arm paid him off to never come back," 

He did his best to look interested and not completely terrified.

"The waitress didn’t see how much he had, but it sounded like way more than pocket change,”

“That’s quite the story, this town loves to gossip,” He said as best he could. His heart was pounding in his ears, making it hard to hear himself speak. His mouth was becoming dryer by the minute.

"They sure do, and there aren’t too many men with metal arms around here,” She nodded toward his left hand.

“That’s true,” He said, choosing his words carefully. His dinner threatened to make a second appearance due to his stomach doing flips.

“But owning a bar in this county isn’t quite that lucrative I’d imagine,”

“That’s quite the assumption, what are you getting at?” His girl’s voice came from beside him before he could say another word. 

She was tapping in. She  stared the woman down, holding Clyde’s hand behind the bar where she couldn’t see.

“I’m just asking—” The agent tried to start.

“I don’t think you’re asking anything ma'am, it sounds like you’re implying something,” His girl’s voice was even and calm as she spoke. 

“I’m just asking why someone in this town would pay off someone’s fiancée to go away, seems shady to me,” The agent’s eyebrows furrowed, her voice dropping to a dangerous tone.

” _I’m_  the fiancée ma’am, that man was my ex. I broke up with him and he came back around when I didn’t want him to,” She began, her tone matching the agent’s.

 “Clyde over here was helping me to make sure he didn’t hurt me. He didn’t pay him to go away, it wasn’t even his money. It was mine from selling my wedding ring in order to pay for the medical bills my ex thought I owed him. Not that it’s any of your business,”

“I—” The agent’s face faltered. Any attempt to say something was cut off by her voice growing louder as she continued with her story. Heads were starting to turn around the bar to try to get in on the gossip.

“He thought I owed him medical bills because he  _beat me_  severely enough that it landed me in the ICU. I ran away from him and gave up everything I knew to wind up in this town, where he stalked me to and tried to force me back with him. This  _saint_  of a man protected me, if it weren’t for him I might be dead,” Her voice broke with that last sentence, making Clyde’s chest ache. His hand squeezed hers behind the bar. “I gave my ex the money he thought I owed him and made it  _crystal clear_  I was never going back to his abusive ass,”

“I didn’t realize—” The agent stuttered, that was clearly not the answer she was looking for.

“I don’t know what you were implying, but Clyde’s been nothing but kind to me since I got here and I’d appreciate you not spreading the gossip that my jealous ex started about him,”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean any harm,”

“I’m sure you didn’t,” She said is a controlled tone. With her teeth gritted and her eyes threatening to spill tears, she squeezed Clyde’s hand and left the bar, walking to the back room. As soon as she was out of sight, Clyde turned back to the slightly-stunned woman in front of him.

“She’s sensitive about the subject. I didn’t want to bring anything up about it when you mentioned it,” He deadpanned.

The agent was having a hard time making eye contact. She thought she finally had something, and it fell apart almost immediately.

“I’m very sorry, I didn’t mean to insinuate anything. I wasn’t trying to—“

"Gossip gets the best of all of us from time to time,” Clyde said in a clipped tone. “If you don’t mind, I think I’m gonna close up for the night. I think we’ve all had a long day,”

"Yes, I understand,” She avoided his gaze as she paid her tab and left the bar. He watched as she turned on her car and drove out of the parking lot and into the inky black night.

He let the remaining patrons know he was closing up for the night, and they trickled out, paying their tabs and saying their goodbyes. A few stopped to ask if she was okay, if what she’d said was true. Clyde worried his bottom lip between his teeth, unsure of whether or not he should say anything. He settled on telling them it wasn’t for him to say. He was finishing stacking the glasses when she came back out.

“She’s gone,” He told her as she walked behind the bar. “Are you feeling okay?”

“Yeah,” She whispered.

Her voice was a little hoarse as she threw her arms around his body and pulled him into a hug. She buried her face into his chest, letting out a sniffle. Her fingers tangled in the fabric of his shirt, trying to hold him as close as possible.

“I’m sorry that happened darlin’,” He murmured, wrapping his arms around her. “I didn’t expect her to ever bring that up,”

"It’s okay, I can’t stop people from gossiping,” She looked up at him, resting her chin on his chest. Her eyes looked a little pink, Clyde couldn’t bear the thought of her crying over this.

“If it helps, I think you might’ve squashed her one lead. She left in quite the hurry after you straightened her out,”

“I figured telling her the money was mine might shut her up, people tend to clam up when you mention comas and runaway brides,” She tried to joke. 

Clyde gave a small smile in acknowledgement.

“You saved my back there, I didn’t know what I was gonna say. I—I was scared honestly,” 

“You did what you could, you were great sweetheart. I just couldn’t listen to her try to make you seem like a bad person anymore. Especially not for that whole incident. I meant it when I said I might be dead without you,” Her voice began to quiver again. He held her closer.

“I love you. I’d fight him off a million more times if it kept you safe. You mean everything to me,” He whispered. He knew he’d never be able to fully convey how much she meant to him, but he could try.

“I love you too. And I gotta be honest,” She looked back up at him, her tired eyes looking happier already. “You don’t look too good in that prison uniform. So you gotta stay out of prison okay? For me?”

“Anything for you,” He chuckled, leaning down to kiss her.

—————

It was about a few weeks later when Clyde had ventured out into the cold January night to pick up a few odds and ends from the store. He insisted his girl stay all warm and cuddled up inside their trailer while he went out to the Grocery Castle on their side of town. She helped him lace up his boots and gave him a kiss on the nose before he slipped on his warmest coat and headed out. 

He couldn’t wait for winter to be over. It felt even longer this year with that agent poking around. It was a good time of year for the bar, with people needing a place to warm up and socialize, but Clyde found himself yearning for spring as the windshield wipers on his car crackled to life after being frozen in place. The light dusting of snow had settled on the road, making it a little harder to find his way down the dimly lit road in the dark. 

The Grocery Castle’s sign glowed against the white powder and the cloudy sky. There weren’t many people out, the only other cars in the lot presumably belonged to the employees waiting to get off their shift. The automatic doors of the store whooshed open and Clyde walked a little heavier, trying to get the snow out from his boots before trekking on. 

The muzak of the store was soft in the background, the buzz of the fluorescent lighting almost as loud. He ignored both as he moved through the aisles, picking up the contents of the wrinkled list he held in his pocket. 

_Bread_

_Milk_

_Bacon_

_Sausage (for the biscuits and gravy she wanted to make for dinner tomorrow)_

_Peanut Butter_

He moved with a practiced efficiency, everything was in its usual place around the store. It was only when he got to the checkout line did he notice anything different. 

There was an unusual amount of pink and red decorations around the front of the store. He missed it when he came in but now that he was standing still, he saw it everywhere. The bin full of little stuffed animals holding boxes of chocolate, the cupid cutout that hung by the vent on the ceiling that twirled as warm air pumped out, the seasonal candy display set up over by the bottle return. 

He scoffed at first, he couldn’t believe they’d set this stuff up so early. It was only mid-January, there was no need to break out the hearts so far in advance. Who buys Valentines gifts from the Grocery Castle anyway?

It wasn’t until he saw the tabloid magazines by the checkout counter did things start to connect in his mind. A headline about some famous couple having a tumultuous breakup, complete with a closeup photo of a bruise on one of their arms followed by some sensationalized speculation. 

_Valentines Day_  was coming up.

The holiday that brought her to Boone County, to him. She’d walked into his bar exhausted, covering her bruises with a hoodie and a pound of makeup, drinking his vodka with the last of her cash to help heal where her tooth had been knocked out. His fist balled up around the cart’s handle at the thought. 

Her physical wounds had healed. She knew she was safe with him, they had a home together, they owned a business together. A lot had changed for both of them in a year. But he wondered where her mind would be on February 14th. She hadn’t mentioned it to him yet. Granted, they’d both been overwhelmed with an FBI agent until recent. Things were just starting to get back to normal, they could finally begin to unwind.

But was she going to be able to unwind with this day coming up? Was it something he should bring up? He felt a bubble of uncertainty rise in his chest as he dropped his items on the conveyer belt for the clerk to scan. He was a gangly high school kid, probably saving up for college. He didn’t pay too much attention to Clyde as he paid and collected his bags with his metal arm. 

He walked back outside, the cold air hitting his face as soon as the automatic doors opened. It filled his lungs and made them ache just a little. He dropped his bags in the trunk and circled to the driver’s side. He sat in his car with the engine on for a moment, realizing he still hadn’t made a decision about what to do. 

He didn’t want to bring up anything that might upset her. Maybe she hadn’t thought of it at all and he was just over thinking it. Maybe she had been thinking of this day for months and just never said anything. She’d have to be reminded at some point, just going about her day. Even the damn grocery store had decorations up. He sighed and ran his fingers through his hair, keeping it from hanging in his face. He didn’t know what to do, to be honest. She meant the world to him, and he never wanted her to feel alone and scared again. 

As he shifted gears and stepped on the gas to travel back down the snowy road, he tentatively made his decision. This was her past and it would be her decision of what to do. He didn’t want to bring up any painful memories by accidentally saying the wrong thing. He would wait for her to say what she needed. 

And he would be right by her side the whole way. Just as she’d done for him.

————

NOTES

Oh hey this is super overdue! I’m trying to wrap this up for y’all, its about damn time! Thanks for being so patient with me, I know its not much. I don’t know if her story would be enough to throw off an FBI agent in real life, but I do know people  _really_  don’t like hearing about traumatizing events. I’d think this would be the agent’s last ditch effort, she finally thought she had something she could use, and Clyde’s girlfriend just isn’t having it. 

There should be just one more chapter left, I hope to get it out soon!


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